PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewThough Farah Jasmine Griffin did not grow up a churchgoer, she gracefully weaves the sacred with the profane in her academic memoir, Read Until You Understand, which explores her connection to the sweeping themes found within the African American literature she reveres. In doing so, Griffin makes literary analysis both accessible and relevant ... Griffin’s tour through the works of heavyweights gives rare—and well-deserved—attention to some of the women who have shaped the Black canon ... Her expertise is evident — sometimes too much so—as she transitions from straightforward memoir to scholarship, presenting a litany of reading that feels drawn directly from her syllabuses. Occasionally, passages read as if they are transcribed from a lecture. And, while Griffin’s quick detour into music stirs up nostalgia for those of us familiar with 1970s R & B, one has the sense that it was perhaps more rewarding for her to write than it is to read. Shortcomings aside, a book like Read Until You Understand takes courage to produce ... The book does include flashes of brilliance ... Nowhere is this brilliance more apparent than in the chapter on death ... Her writing about love is equally evocative ... Griffin’s evangelizing of Black literature does what the best sermons do: It sends you back to Scripture—Baldwin, Coates, Morrison, David Walker and others—to discover or rediscover them, to ponder and treasure them anew.
