Miseducated

Starred review from June 1, 2021

Fleming gives us an intimate look at his transformation from a troubled youth to an esteemed scholar and educator in this intimate memoir. Starting life as a sweet and optimistic child, he was molded by abuse, trauma, and an education system and culture that kept him from believing in himself or seeing positive representations of Black men and Black culture in the United States. The author is candid about the pain he experienced when his mother was deployed to Iraq and his siblings were scattered, each struggling to cope with the absence of a maternal figure on their own terms. Fleming has an inherent drive, but as a teen he ends up dropping out of college and selling drugs. He eventually finds a way to elevate himself and others through debate and teaching. His recollections of debate tournaments are a highlight of the memoir, showing the moments in which he discovered the power of his voice and connecting with others. VERDICT A memoir that will appeal to many readers as a story about triumph of the will. Fleming conveys his passion for learning and teaching, in writing that is by turns entertaining and moving. This is a must-read for educators, as a professional development tool and to consider for high school curricula.--Kelly Karst, California Inst. of Integral Studies

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2021
How a broken Black boy who was almost lost forever found himself--and many others. Cornel West's glowing introduction to Fleming's debut memoir reveals the basic outlines of a journey "from a life of drugs, violence and hoop dreams to a quest for intellectual and spiritual excellence," a journey that eventually led to Harvard. It is a tribute to Fleming's spellbinding storytelling that you almost forget that you know how it ends. He begins with the aftermath of a suicide attempt made when he was an 18-year-old college dropout working on a grim assembly line, having seemingly forfeited his chances at success or happiness. The autobiographical account that follows shows how slim those chances were. "The factory was a dystopia," he writes. "No one laughed. No one smiled. No one hugged in the morning. The first-shift workers filed into the factory like androids, punching our time cards and fastening our goggles, assuming our positions on the assembly line, where we'd slave for the next ten hours." With immediacy and stylistic flair, Fleming powerfully narrates his difficult childhood with an absent mother and a violent stepfather; his total-immersion course in street life and failure in school; a chance at a Division I basketball career that he would have destroyed himself if injury had not beat him there; a dramatic incident of lust, infidelity, and an attempt at murderous revenge that occurred when the author was only 14; and his interest in--and great talent for--debate, which turned out to be one of the most transformative elements of his life. Now an assistant coach of debate at Harvard, he is also the founder of the Harvard Diversity Project. Informed by the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass, the books that finally overcame his resistance to reading, Fleming adds a compelling chapter to the body of literature that inspired him. An inspiring page-turner for all readers, especially those seeking to overcome significant obstacles to find success.

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