Reviews for Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom

The average rating for Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-05 00:00:00 Catherine Pehr I'd seen Professor West's books on shelves in bookstores and was interested. Why Race Matters and why Democracy Matters seemed like important discussions that we still need to have in the United States. But I confess my own racism/prejudice- I saw his afro and I wondered if as a middle class, middle aged, Midwestern White male I could relate to him. I worried that his politics would be too liberal even for a left-leaning centrist Democrat like me. Then I caught his appearance on a late night talk show and he wasn't talking with arrogance or anger about race or politics- he was speaking about Jesus. He was speaking about faith and love and forgiveness and suffering. When I fount this book, with the word "hope" right in the title, I wondered if it would be about President Obama or about the civil rights movement. It's not. It is about us, all of us. And in it, West introduces us to Jesus. Not the confident, indignant, powerful Jesus that Pat Robertson and James Dobson talk about- the strict, White American, Republican patriarchal Jesus who opposes government regulation, taxes, and gay marriage and supports the troops and the Tea Parties and the NRA. Not the optimistic, affluent, sexy, successful Jesus that Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar talk about, waiting to solve all your problems and shower you with material blessings if you just believe enough. West reveals the Jesus who is humble, genuine, unpretentious but more importantly the Jesus who is brutally honest, patient, kind, just, loving, and wise. The Jesus who turns the other cheek, walks the extra mile, offers the shirt off His back, loves his enemy and was willing to risk everything and sacrifice everything for the sake of others. Yes, West talks about race and politics, history and economics in this book. He talks about institutions and empire, families, education, and culture. But mostly he talks about depth. Deep Learning, Deep Democracy, and Deep Love, deep enough to sacrifice everything for the sake of justice, equality, and hope. West says that he's made it his mission to make the world safe for Martin Luther King Jr. That's awesome, because anyone who's read King's 'Strength to Love,' knows that King had made it his mission to make the world safe for Jesus.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-04 00:00:00 Bob Evans I'm going to assume you know who Cornel West is, because no one accidentally reads a Cornel West book. Either you were assigned one of his books in a political science or African-American studies class, or you're already a fan of his. So I'm limiting my review of this book to its literary merits and not the merits of its content. Hope on a Tightrope is unlike his other books in that he is not laying out a comprehensive argument and building its proof (e.g. Race Matters or Democracy Matters). Instead, this book is more a free-flowing rant on a variety of subjects such as courage, leadership, social justice, family, music, etc. Dr. West tries to tie them together by discussing the idea of "hope" and defining it as something different from optimism; it is rather, having a vision for a changed future. The tightrope part of his concept of hope is that blind visions of the future are often derailed by the reality of the struggle that will be necessary to accomplish that future. I don't think he is completely successful in unifying the variety of topics he covers, but given the breadth of the subjects he opines on, I don't hold that against him. From a prose perspective, it reads like you are listening to Dr. West speak in person - which means it's sermonizing that is part aphorism ("Truth is all about allowing suffering to speak") and part political rhetoric (i.e. he uses terms like "neocon" and "military-industrial complex") and part progressive poetry ("The marketplace culture of consumption undermines community, undermines links to history . . . and undermines relationships"). The book is accompanied by a free CD that is Dr. West being interviewed by Tavis Smiley set to some jazz, so that's a bonus point. But unfortunately, I found it mostly shallow, with Dr. West spouting opinions without backing them up. Fans of Cornel West will love this; I could take it or leave it.