For those of you who enjoy life stories, this is a great read. The life of Clarence Thomas is indeed a remarkable, disturbing, and surprising journey. I came across the book as a member of a conservative book club, and I was intrigued to hear the perspective of an African American who holds similar values as I do.

Thomas's life is remarkable given the fact that he came from abject poverty as a black man in the South to one day become the first black Supreme Court Judge. That's amazing. As a young man, he faced crucial circumstances, some because he was black and some because he was poor. For example he writes, "Hunger without the prospect of eating and cold without the prospect of warmth-that's how I remember the winter of 1955" (p. 8). On top of this, his biological father abandoned him, leaving him to be raised by his grandparents. But as he would gratefully recall, ". . . I had been raised by the greatest man I have ever known" (p. 28).

However, with all of his achievement against such opposing circumstances, there were moments in his life that give a reader like me great pause. I am especially thinking of the failure of his first marriage, and his reasons why. (there was also heavy drinking, but that came to an end) No doubt about it, Thomas is transparent in this memoir and that is to be commended. In his recounting of his divorce he writes, "The more I thought about my situation, the more clearly I understood that I had to leave Kathy in order to survive . . . I left my wife and child . . . I still live with the guilt, and always will" (p. 135). What disturbs me here is that his reasoning was selfish, and his marriage did not have to end. He committed the same act of his father, he abandoned his family. Divorce was not the answer! The God who brought him through poverty and racial discrimination was reliable enough and sufficiently able to save and renew his marriage. Take note that this decision has left him in an ongoing state of guilt!

Also disturbing to me was the conclusion Thomas reached as to why he received so much opposition from the Democratic Party as a Supreme Court nominee. Clearly, he was wrongfully and unjustly treated. The Party leaders drummed up falsehoods and went to great measures to damage his character and reputation, all in an effort to keep him off of the bench. But Thomas missed the reason why their fury erupted. He thought it was because he was black. He writes, "But it was a mob all the same, and its purpose-to keep the black man in his place . . ." (p. 269). On the contrary, it was not due to his skin color, but because of his political position. Thomas was a conservative; the Democrat opposition was liberal. It was a politically motivated assault, not a racial one. For if Thomas had been a liberal, there would have been no opposition at all! Just consider the overwhelming support of liberals that Barak Obama is now enjoying!

The life of Clarence Thomas was surprising as well, surprising in a good way for several reasons. First, Thomas had experienced hardships as a black man and had been influenced by those who existed in a state of anger as a result. Thomas came to realize the futility of a life of anger. He states, "I promised Almighty God that if he would purge me of my anger, I would never hate again" (p. 60). Second, he saw the self-deception of blaming the government for your situation and relying on the government to rescue you. He writes, "When the government assumes that responsibility (your decisions), it takes away your freedom-and wasn't freedom the very thing for which blacks in America were fighting?" (p. 73) Independence will never be won as long as government is the answer in forms of dependence such as unequal standards and assistance programs that promote reliance instead of self sufficiency.

One surprising and disturbing side note is that Thomas never mentions a transition stage of life in which Christ became his all. He was raised in Catholic schools, mentions praying, and quotes Scripture, but through the entire life story, salvation in Christ is tragically missing. Which is a reminder to us all that similar values and activities are not sure indicators of genuine, saving faith. I'm not saying Clarence Thomas is not a Christian. I am only saying if he is, he doesn't talk about it in biblical terms - and that's disturbing!