RaveThe Wall Street JournalThe publisher promotes this account with a blurb calling it a \'searing portrait of a man divided between his country and his identity,\' but that description is not entirely apt. It’s difficult to discern how deeply Ms. Seletzky and her father have discussed his experiences ... The Kneeling Man, despite its title, is her story more than his. Yet this untidy, honest, fascinating account compels the reader to reflect on profound questions of loyalty and race. Ms. Seletzky, a former litigator, offers no simple answers ... It seems safe to say Mr. McCollough is not inclined to deep reflection. As a result, the book’s best passages derive from his daughter’s earnest reporting ... All of us want to see our parents as heroes. It is to Ms. Seletzky’s great credit that she explores the depths of her father’s story with love, hope and critical realism. I came away from The Kneeling Man feeling that, if Mac McCollough doesn’t bear the burden of his role, his daughter is bravely carrying it for him.
Peniel E. Joseph
MixedThe Wall Street JournalMr. Joseph weaves their stories fluidly and with vivid detail, helping to strip away the high gloss of mythology ... At times, especially in the first half of his book, Mr. Joseph works hard to portray King and Malcolm as equally important figures in the quest for a \'moral and political reckoning\'...But in those early chapters it’s King notching one victory after another, profoundly changing American life and law, while Malcolm inspires audiences with his defiance and sharp words but searches for the most effective use of his skills.
Kevin Cook
MixedThe Wall Street JournalIn his pregame warm-up, the author struggles a bit with his control ... Mr. Cook too often turns to quotes from journalists and other modern experts to convey information, taking the reader out of 1979 and into the present. The author’s own description and analysis would have been less intrusive ... Fortunately, Mr. Cook saves his best stuff for the game. Like the finest play-by-play announcers, he settles into a good rhythm, alternating between the action on the field and colorful asides ... Some of the stories are moving; others feel like padding ... Mr. Cook might have been better off weaving some of this material into his account of the game and cutting out the rest to maintain narrative tension.
Brin-Jonathan Butler
PanThe New York Times Book Review\"Chess can make for compelling literature, especially in fiction... because the game offers a battle between two minds, two personalities, two worldviews. But a game itself is only compelling to readers if we are made to understand and care about the players, seeing their moves as reflections of their characters... Herein lies the trouble for The Grandmaster. Since chess is not a sport by the standard definition, Carlsen and Karjakin do not turn their natures into motor mechanisms, thus depriving the reader of visible action. That, in turn, forces Butler to press too hard in describing the moves on the chessboard ... Neither Carlsen nor Karjakin would talk to [Butler]. They appeared briefly at news conferences but expressed little emotion. They never even complained about the terrible Staples chairs ... To compensate, it seems, Butler takes the reader on journeys away from the tournament... But even the best of these vignettes serve to remind that Carlsen and Karjakin failed to carry their load ... by remaining so deep in thought, Carlsen and Karjakin shut out their fans, shut out the author and shut out the reader. At the tournament’s end, one man emerges triumphant, or at least relieved, the other dejected. The rest of us watch through one-way glass, unmoved.\
Patrick Parr
RaveThe Wall Street JournalMore than anything else, it’s Mr. Parr’s willingness to dig that impresses and makes The Seminarian an original, much-needed and even stirring book about King’s formative years at Crozer. King’s decision to go to a small, mostly white school in Chester, Pa., and study with an all-white, largely liberal faculty would have profound effects on this son of an Atlanta minister. If Mr. Parr were a basketball player, he’d be King’s opposite. There’s no flash to his game. His prose never rises above the rim. But he hustles and does all the little things right. He lists every class that King took at Crozer and goes into detail on the most important ones, describing the courses and professors who helped shape one of the 20th century’s great leaders ... Those details may be useful for future historians, and Mr. Parr deserves credit for leaving no page in King’s academic record unturned. But his significant contribution is in helping us understand what made this young man extraordinary and in taking on subjects that might prove difficult to stomach for those who worship King ... The revelations about King’s love life and academic fraud may garner the headlines ... the book’s real achievement is in charting King’s intellectual and spiritual development, building a compelling case that the black church was not King’s only foundation.
