audiobook Alex Haley: And the Books That Changed a Nation by Robert J. Norrell in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Reading Blood Brothers; and the Defenders along with this ...By Claude L. WinfieldReading Blood Brothers; and the Defenders along with this book proves be enlightening. Each creates a background for exploring the other deep;y.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Judith TruittI've only browsed this look forward to reading it.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Insightful on writing process; but not as much on other aspects of his lifeBy Indy ReviewerRobert Norrell's "Alex Haley: And the Books That Changed a Nation" provides a thorough accounting of the development and publishing of Malcolm X; Roots; and the Roots miniseries. Unfortunately; it doesn’t provide nearly as deep a set of insights into the rest of Haley’s life; and Norrell’s choice not to pursue his own primary source research takes away from the overall richness of the book. While it’s still worth reading; 3.5 stars rounded to 3 for the latter.Robert Norrell; a professor at Tennessee-Knoxville who has written extensively on race relations; the South; and Booker T. Washington; is the first established biographer to attempt to explain Haley. It’s a more difficult challenge than most; partially because he’s competing directly with the several hours of sanitized autobiography Haley presented to audiences in Roots: the Next Generations.Unsurprisingly; Haley’s life was far more complex. Norrell is on firmest ground when he describes the long process of how Haley produced The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots. For the former; Haley established himself as a fairly proficient freelance writer; took on an incredibly difficult subject; and then spent far too much time writing the book while chasing many side projects thanks to financial difficulties generated from his divorce and the contract he signed for Malcolm X. On the other hand; those difficulties led him to the lecture circuit; on which he not only survived for a number of years as a brilliant and lucrative speaker but also provided him with some of the insights and motivation to write Roots (and primed the market for its eventual release; having told the story of his history to a large audience for years before it came out.)Roots eventually produced almost as many problems for Haley as it did success; Haley was inclined to research – for which he was not trained; and in the process of which he was likely bamboozled – rather than write; eventually requiring a virtual co-author to finally finish the project. Unfortunately; between his ever-firmer decision to market Roots as literal history rather than Herman Wouk-ish historical fiction along with accepting disastrous advice to settle questionable litigation (partially thanks to a vastly biased judge who probably would have had many of his rulings overturned on appeal); Haley’s reputation went to tatters following its release. Norrell does a workman’s job in rehabilitating it; Haley made a lot of mistakes (“a likeable narcissist”); but they were generally not malicious and his overall contribution remains significant.Why 3 stars; then? The biggest issue with the book is that it is mostly based off of a 6 year set of interviews with Haley that were intended for use in an authorized biography but never published due to the deaths of both the interviewer and subject. An examination of the footnotes reveals that Norrell did very little primary source research of his own despite many of the principals still being alive. Save for a handful of contacts surrounding the court cases; it does not appear that the author made any effort to reach out to those familiar with aspects of Haley's life; James Earl Jones; a close friend and one time tenant of Haley; would have been one prominent but obvious choice.This presents problems throughout the book; but where it becomes most noticeable is during the single short chapter on the quarter of Haley’s life that was spent in the Coast Guard. Notwithstanding the publisher's carelessness on the blurb; “it was in the Navy that Haley discovered himself as a writer"; there are a number of contextual misunderstandings. Race relations in the Coast Guard during Haley’s era are generally regarded by military historians as better than the other services – the Coast Guard commissioned its first African American officers before the Navy; and further back had a legendary commander – and a little bit of research would have revealed that Haley’s mentor in the Coast Guard not only taught him journalistic writing but selected him as the first African American ever to be nominated to attend the Coast Guard academy. Later; there’s a reference that in 1972 “(Haley found) a berth on a wooden ship Eagle…so that he might know the feeling of sailing…like Kunta Kinte.” Even the tiniest bit of interviewing would have showed this as the steel hulled Coast Guard barque cutter Eagle; on which his former service granted a famous former chief a few weeks sojourn to write without distraction. His picture from this time on board apparently remains in the wardroom; where he wrote several chapters of Roots. While the former story might have been more difficult to track down; the latter almost certainly has a prominent paper trail; and both hint that the author leaned far too strongly on existing papers housed near his campus than doing even pedestrian original research of his own.All this leads to the feeling that there’s more to the story that could have been told had Norrell been more thorough; and that’s a shame as the people who could have enriched it will likely not be around if and when someone else tackles the topic. 3.5 stars rounded down to 3; but still worth a read.