MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewListening to music is one of life’s simple pleasures. And sadly, as with life, there are many ways to ruin it. An artist...might write a book that does its best to make listening to music sound like a chore. Music Is History, by Ahmir \'Questlove\' Thompson, is one of those books ... Questlove often ends up asking meandering questions ... One of the book’s strengths is the way in which Questlove tucks in subtle details about the lives of important artists, encouraging us to think more deeply about the songs we love and the people who made them ... The book is a master class in music trivia, and the prickly nature of music obsessives ... But in his effort to find out how we know what we know, Questlove often becomes distracted, introducing countless asides and failing to distinguish serious thoughts from the casual musings of the wandering mind ... And then there are moments in which he writes about women in ways that may make some feel uncomfortable.
Hanif Abdurraqib
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review... this poet, cultural critic, essayist and music buff uses the tales of Black performers to make poignant observations about race in America while using Black performance as a metaphor for the transcendent imagination, gliding through television, music, film, minstrel shows, vaudeville and even space. The book is also a candid self-portrait of Abdurraqib’s experience as a Black man, written with sincerity and emotion ... Abdurraqib has written an important book on the transformative power of that kind of love. Where it falters are the moments when he yanks the reader from one pop culture reference to the next at breakneck speed ... Whiplash may occur, but it’s worth following along. Those not interested in Abdurraqib’s musing on Green Book and Altamont may find themselves moved by his aching writing on his family — leading to the book’s devastating final chapter.
Darryl Pinckney
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewHere, [Pinckney] reveals himself to be a skillful chronicler of black experience in literary criticism, reportage and biography ... what stands out in this collection are the moments when Pinckney turns his eye toward the contradictions of the black bourgeoisie, of which he is a longtime member ... A hazard of growing up black and middle class is the misguided belief that money and education will provide refuge from discrimination. Pinckney shows how those presumptions are often manifestations of internalized racism, and that even he is not immune to them ... Not all of the essays have aged well ... [Pinckney\'s] prose can also seem belabored and overwrought ... The crown jewel of this book is \'Banjo\'...In it, Pinckney pinpoints a devastating irony of growing up in a privileged, intellectual milieu like his: Frequent conversations with his parents about race became a way for the family to deflect real intimacy. The pressure to live up to his parents’ expectations led to its own kind of oppression, one he sought to escape by traveling to Europe but addresses head on in this essay, which captures his journey toward self-discovery. Through race, Pinckney implies, we hide from each other and ourselves.
