The Grey Album
by Kevin Young
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
72%
Critic Reviews: 11
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
100%
Reader Ratings: 2
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Synopsis
The first work of prose by the brilliant poet Kevin Young, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction PrizeTaking its title from Danger Mouse’s pioneering mashup of Jay-Z’s The Black Album and the Beatles’ The White Album, Kevin Young’s encyclopedic book combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical choruses to illustrate the African American tradition of lying—storytelling, telling tales, fibbing, improvising, “jazzing.” What emerges is a persuasive argument... more
About Kevin Young
- All Critics: 11
- Positive: 8
- Negative: 3
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The New York Times | 20 Apr 2012
“The Grey Album” is angular scholarship for whites, a storying songbook for blacks. Who is the liar, who the thief, who is telling whose history, and who is keeping score? Young forces us to contemplate who controls the music.
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San Francisco Chronicle | 1 Apr 2012
But one thing is for sure: Young's book is a place to linger and to ponder; don't make it quick.
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Boston.com | 30 Mar 2012
At the same time he points out the poetry in the lyrics and draws back to the way black writers were discredited throughout history.
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City Book Review | 4 Apr 2012
Young has a great deal to say, all said with the sharp eye, good humor, and honesty found in his earlier works.
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The New York Times | 15 Mar 2012
This book is the work of a man who, correctly, calls himself “a poet and a collector and now a curator,” one devoted to saving “what we didn’t even know needed saving.”
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Slate | 3 Mar 2012
Young is working out a fascinating idea but seems incapable of choosing either poetry or prose as his tool, classical or hip-hop.
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ForeWord Reviews | 29 Feb 2012
This book should be in every public American library and the private collections of readers interested in music, literature, and cultural history.
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Kirkus Reviews | 28 Nov 2011
...his explications are so fatiguing that readers will lose patience before Young closes his argument. Young strives for encyclopedic scope, but the narrative is ultimately shapeless.
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Creative Loafing | 7 Mar 2012
The book's "Overture" sets the bar high, perhaps too high, delivering an unabashedly poetic list-like structure that evokes the mesmerizing complexities and contradictory moments of Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp."
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The Kenyon Review | 24 Apr 2012
I don’t believe I’m doing a great job articulating the magic of this sort of book, but when you’ve read one, you’ll know.
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Watermark Books And Cafe
Young entertains as much as he teaches and broadens our understanding of the unifying threads of the country's cultural traditions.
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