New York Times best-selling author Cornel
West is one of America’s most provocative and admired
public intellectuals. Whether in the classroom, the streets,
the prisons, or the church, Dr. West’s penetrating
brilliance has been a bright beacon shining through the
darkness for decades. Yet, as he points out in this new
memoir, “I’ve never taken the time to focus on the inner
dynamics of the dark precincts of my soul.”
That is, until now.
Brother West is like its author:
brilliant, unapologetic, full of passion yet cool. This
poignant memoir traces West’s transformation from a
schoolyard Robin Hood into a progressive cultural icon. From
his youthful investigation of the “death shudder” to why he
embraced his calling of teaching over preaching, from his
three marriages and his two precious children to his
near-fatal bout with prostate cancer, West illuminates what
it means to live as “an aspiring bluesman in a world of
ideas and a jazzman in the life of the mind.” Woven together
with the fibers of his lifelong commitment to the prophetic
Christian tradition that began in Sacramento’s Shiloh
Baptist Church, Brother West is a tale of a man
courageous enough to be fully human, living and loving out
loud.