Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace

Many of the book reviews that I have read recently are like the previews that they show in the movie theater before the main feature.  They give away the entire plot and all of the interesting details of the book, and leave you disappointed in the product that they meant to promote.   You end up reading a review in the New York Times, deciding to buy the book, and then anticipating the plot highlights mentioned in the review the entire time you are reading.  Therefore, I won't talk too much about the plot of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Pierce: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League, other than to say that it is one of the most powerful and challenging books that I have read this year and I encourage everyone to discover it for themselves.


Available on amazon.com
In essence, this book is about a young man who grows up in Newark, attends Yale University majoring in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, yet ends up being killed in a drug related shooting by the time he is 30.  As Toni Morrison says in The Bluest Eye, "since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how." This book aims to uncover how such an intelligent and talented man could meet such a horrific end.

The house where Robert died. Photo: nj.com
Written by Jeff Hobbs, Robert Peace's college roommate, this is a well researched, quickly paced biography.  Relying on conversations with those who knew Peace best, Hobbs seeks to explore the interior life of this complicated young man.  Reading this book reminded me of the many charismatic and intelligent black men I have known (from all social classes) who self-medicate with marijuana.  It reminded me of the men I know who use travel, alcohol, and womanizing as a means of escaping childhood trauma that a degree doesn't erase. It reminded me of all of the black graduates of private school and Ivy League colleges who struggle between finding personal fulfillment and financial success.  I have dated many Rob Peace's over the years, and in some ways I am him.

Robert's graduation from Yale. Photo: nj.com
The great success of Hobbs' book is that it reveals the complexities of a man that many would write off as a thug or a drug dealer (despite the recent move to legalize marijuana in many states).  There are, however, some missteps in regards to Hobbs' understanding of black culture.  For example, early in the book he describes Robert's mother's short hairstyle saying that she refused to wear weaves, which were not yet popular in the 1970's and 80's. He refers to Robert's dreadlocks as "braids."  He describes Robert's tattoo of Nefertiti as a tattoo of an "African woman with a head wrap."  Furthermore, Hobbs doesn't seem to understand the complexities of the N-word.  When he is recounting conversations between Robert and his black friends, Hobbs spells the word "Nigger" rather than "Nigga," which is disconcerting.

Furthermore, the death of Robert Peace is disturbing, but equally disturbing is the fact that Hobbs resurrected his writing career by writing a book about it.  Hobbs is honest about the fact that after writing a semi-successful first novel, he struggled to produce another commercially viable book.  It is unfortunate that friend had to die in order for him to achieve the success that Robert never could.  Nevertheless, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace is an incredibly readable and thoughtful book that should be required reading for every high-school student.  It is a nuanced portrait of an individual who failed to reach his potential, a community that enabled his poor choices, and a society that did not provide a safety net for one of its most promising, yet vulnerable citizens.

Read this book and look out for the film version directed by Antoine Fuqua and produced by Hobbs's wife Rebecca (*extreme side eye*).

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