The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told by Alex Haley

"I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda.…I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."

So says Malcolm X at the end of his autobiography. Despite this conclusion, Malcolm X did not always feel this way. This book starts with a young boy a poster-boy a "mascot", a negro in an otherwise all-white school. It explains in deatial the secretes of his childhood that he never shared before writing this book, and quickly shows his downward spiral from the top of his class to the life of a Harlem hustler. Once he is arrested, Malcolm X finds Islam, or what he thinks is Islam, through his family. He becomes enthralled, and in his twelve years of compleatly devoted service to Mr. Muhammed and the Nation of Islam, he rises to the top of the Islamic world, as once of the most famous spokesmen for African American people of his time. It also depicts his betral by the Nation of Islam from a personal perspective, and describes how he found true Islam. This book was in it's final stages at the time that he dies, so much of it explains how he was feeling toward the end of his life, his confusion aboout his faith, his changing opinions, and even his knowledge and warrented parinoia about his assination.

Malcolm X was a fiery personality and an important part of history whom I feel every American should know about and understand in order to better the world we live in today. Malcolm X was one of the most imfluential African Americans of his time, a "Black Nationalist" and "Black Muslim" no less, who was compleatly opposed to the peaceful protests and ideas of intergration proposed by Dr. King and others like him. As he once said "Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change." Malcolm X made them angry, and he made them change their lives.

This book is often fascinating, but can also be very repetitive, so sometimes it is a long and difficult read. If you are interested, especially as a caucasian reader, I suggest you be paitient. Many of his opinions do change (though I feel that he remains sexist until the end), so don't judge the book to soon. Also, make sure you start "Malcolm X" with the knowlage that the Nation of Islam was no closer to true Islam then Hare Krishna is to true Christianity. I greatly enjoyed the first and last thirds of this book, despite how it dragged at the center. I would definately recomend this book to someone who is interested in either religion or the formation and mindset of cults (which the Nation of Islam definately was, in it's own right). Three stars.

"If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything"
~The Autobiography of Malcolm X