Rightshelf

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Excellent and moving. There was a need for this book to be written given the fact that so many appear to have doubted just how difficult and challenging Justice Thomas's life has been--and not just when he was growing up in Georgia. With all due respect to the memory of Myers Anderson--Thomas's grandfather--he could have raised the future Justice to be the kind of person he is without resorting to some of the harsher things that Anderson did. I mean, does it make sense to kick your own grandson out of your house simply because the racism of fellow seminary students in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King disillusioned that grandson from pursuing a career in the priesthood? And yet, that is precisely what Anderson did. His action was incomprehensible and while I understand that Justice Thomas reveres the man--the Justice never had any kind of relationship with his own father and doubtless, it would have been too traumatic to have a complete break with two father figures in one's life--some of the actions Anderson took clearly seem wrong in retrospect.

In any event, one of the more laudable aspects of the book is that it will disabuse anyone who believes that somehow, Justice Thomas does not possess the intellect necessary to work and work well at the Supreme Court. The writing in the book is candid, passionate, powerful and at times, quite humorous. And while at times, the passages in the book revealed Myers Anderson at his worst, they also revealed the best of him; his refusal to allow circumstances to beat him down and defeat him, for instance and his insistence that if one puts one foot in front of the other, great things can be achieved despite the odds. A simple lesson, but one that needs repeating, especially to the troubled and the burdened.

Most autobiographies these days are pure saccharine. This one isn't. At times, one winces to read what happened to Justice Thomas throughout his life. But he overcame his burdens and troubles--a sustaining lesson for all.