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My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Clarence Thomas
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $10.85
You Save: $5.10 (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  297 reviews
Sales Rank: 338176
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 006056556X
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780060565565
ASIN: 006056556X
Publication Date: October 1, 2008 (In 41 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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| Customer Reviews: Read 292 more reviews...
 This is a BRILLIANT book August 7, 2008
Where to begin with all the good things that I'd like to say about this book?
1. The prose is very clear, concise, easy-to-read and unpretentious. The entire book comes in at under 300 pages and there are no wasted words. (For a VERY LONG and VERY BLOATED autobiography of a politician, see Bill Clinton's "My Life.")
2. He fills in the missing gaps from Anita Hill's account of what happened. (It was fairly easy to surmise from her writing style in "Speaking Truth To Power" that Anita Hill was/ is a drama queen.) The type of antics that Thomas described (without going too far into detail) were not at all unexpected based on the personality type that I perceived from Hill's writing. The snippets are neither bitter nor abusive. Only discussed in a matter of fact way.
3. There is some interesting discussion of the dynamics of a government bureaucracy and how it starts off to solve some problem but eventually "hardens" into something completely different. There is no long, philosophical discussion of *why* this situation materializes (as you might find by reading the works of Hayek or Milton Friedman), but just observations that it does happen.
4. The thinking is very clear and straightforward. Thomas is not a mindless ideologue, but rather someone who has thought out his positions based on actual *life experience.*
5. He made observations that racism is not a uniquely Southern phenomenon (for example, noting that the first time that he was called a "nigger" happened when he moved up North and not in the South--where the blacks and whites there came to some sort of modus vivendi).
Bad points (only one):
1. The book had no index. That might have been nice when going back over fine points after finishing the book.
All in all, this book was well worth the purchase price of a new hardcover book.
I highly recommend this book -- a 'must' read. August 7, 2008
I bought this book out of boredom. I had nothing else, at the time, to read. I thought that I knew enough of this gentleman from newspapers and media. Was I ever wrong! This is book will enlighten one as to who the real Clarence Thomas is and the grandfather who became a role model for him. His portrayals of various members of Congress are indeed enlightening!
I no longer have the book. I had lent it out so many times that it finally never found its way back to me.
 Same experiences, Different conclusions August 6, 2008
Clarence Thomas is a brilliant man, much like my husband. Both experienced similar experiences, but drew different conclusions from their experiences.
This book is very personable and well-written. However, the inside print design could have been better laid out.
Highly readable memoir of a remarkable journey August 4, 2008
As an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Clarence Thomas sits in a position of tremendous influence, one that ultimately issues binding opinions on the very meaning of the oldest working Constitution in the world. Many people assume that reaching such heights requires the head start afforded by wealth and powerful connections. Justice Thomas' remarkable story of his origin and rise demonstrates that such is not necessarily the case. Sometimes those who come from the most humble backgrounds can through hard work and perseverance achieve what might normally be imagined impossible.
Thomas opens his narrative with a statement that will be familiar to far too many of our fellow citizens: "I was nine years old when I first met my father." We're introduced to the rest of his family in turn, including his brother and mother. Apparently unable to handle two young boys and a job that did not pay well on her own--her ex-husband and the father of her children did nothing to help--she sent young Clarence and his brother Myers to live with her parents, whom Thomas calls Aunt Tina (Christine being his grandmother's given name) and Daddy.
The move ultimately proved a good one for Thomas; under the supervision of his strict grandfather, he learned discipline and how to work hard, starting to help with the family business when in the fourth grade. Descriptions of his early interactions with the world beyond his family and in the educational system remind us that the color of one's skin had real meaning at one time in this country whose founding document declared that "all men are created equal"--particularly in the deep South.
Readers are taken on a tour through Thomas' past, able to see how the family of even meager means was able to put him on good footing by teaching him important principles that would serve him well and by proving equal to the task of getting him educated. Thomas' commentary give us insights into his thinking at various stages of his life, how he came to see the larger world around him and how he progressed from good student to angry black man, and from there to finding a productive outlet for his talent.
This narrative leads through Thomas' life course, taking us ultimately to the Senate confirmation hearings for his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. The episode is tremendously stressful for him and his family; we're able to see that irrespective of whatever principles one might have or how one has tried to apply them, getting to the top requires endurance--and sometimes endurance of ugly and miserable things. Achievement is never easy but achievement on one's own terms, where others cannot take the credit, is something even more.
Clarence Thomas has a remarkable story and has told it well in My Grandfather's Son.
A must Read July 15, 2008
If anyone you know tells you they can't make it in America buy this book for them and tell them to read it.
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