Revolution or Death

Starred review from September 1, 2020
A searching biography of the Black Panther leader who "was a man of seemingly irreconcilable contradictions." As literary scholar and biographer Gifford clearly shows in this excellent account, which makes use of a trove of documents and interviews unavailable to other writers, the trajectory of Eldridge Cleaver's life (1935-1998) is confounding. He graduated from minor infractions to violent crimes as a young man and spent a decade in prison, where he became a voracious reader who "created vast bibliographies with dozens of titles" and absorbed great bodies of knowledge. His prison memoir, Soul on Ice (1968), remains a classic, a defiant assertion of independence from behind bars. He was also adept at self-sabotage: abusive, narcissistic, capable of turning on allies without second thought. Cleaver achieved fame in the 1960s as a leader of the Black Panthers, advocating an increasingly militant Black nationalism. Fleeing federal charges after a shootout with police, he spent years in exile in places like North Korea, where he made speeches that "implored freedom fighters to kidnap ambassadors, blow up buildings and pipelines, and shoot anyone who stood in their way," Cuba, and Algeria, where, as he often did, he alienated his protectors. He finally returned to the U.S. and disavowed his revolutionary past to become, as he wrote to a confidant, "a big Patriotic Shit," a path that took increasingly unlikely turns: devotee of the Unification Church, momentary darling of the religious right (he "hoped to capitalize on America's obsession with born-again Christianity"), designer of ill-fated codpiece-equipped trousers, anti-communist crusader, and, as his fortunes wound ever downward, tree trimmer. Cleaver even advocated for "identification cards to control illegal immigration." In the end, though, he was also addicted to crack cocaine and was diagnosed with prostate cancer, leading to his early death. One of the author's early remarks is a fitting epitaph: "a troubled man who survived by any means necessary." An illuminating study of a complex, memorable historical figure.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.