X by Ilyasah Shabazz (review)

A fifteen-year-old boy, who has clung to adoration for the father he lost early in life, has reason to suspect that the confidence and advice his father once imparted is in fact worthless, and the boy begins to doubt that the future holds anything worthwhile. Having watched his mother taken away from her children and his siblings separated, he is certain the only chance he has in life requires him to get away—new city, new faces, new ambitions. This could be a novel about any adolescent and his dark night of the soul, but it’s in fact a powerful, fully credible reimagining of the young adulthood of Malcolm Little, who, after reaching rock bottom in prison for robbery, will discover a better path and a new identity as Malcolm X. Shabazz, his daughter who was only three at the time of his assassination, spins his story from collective family memory, speculating on his reasons for living on the criminal edge of Boston and Harlem. Malcolm narrates, beginning his tale in 1945 just as the boss for whom he’s running numbers comes after him with murderous intent, flashing back through chains of events that led him deep into disillusion: “I’m angry at the white guards who beat us; at the white cops who put us here; at the white slaveholders who tied our ancestors down in the guts of great ships—they caused this cascade of terrible things that have led me here.” Interestingly, the story stops with Malcolm’s stint in prison, but he has insight into the wisdom of his father, a commitment to Allah, and his eyes fixed on the future, and readers know that the man is destined for leadership. A timeline and notes on real and fictional characters are included.