LAUSR

lescent in an environment that he could only begin to make sense of rather than fully comprehend. More importantly, perhaps, his account provides an account that highlights the realities of being young, male and black in a community that was seemingly always under pressure and unsettled. Much of the narrative in The Beautiful Struggle is not necessarily driven by Coates himself. We hear a lot in the book of the experiences of his father and other members of his family and friendship network. His father is a forceful presence throughout the book and provides Coates with many of the snippets of information, wisdom and anger that frame much of the narrative of the book as a whole. There is a particularly insightful account in Chapter three of his father’s role in the Black Panther movement in the 1970s. In addition, however, Coates is able to provide a narrative that takes us through his adolescent years and his experiences of sport, friendship, music and school in the ever changing environment of Baltimore. Writing at a time long before the mobilisations that have been brought together under the umbrella of #Black Lives Matter his account suggests that the everyday violence and disrespect that has led to the present have a longer and more complex historical presence. The recent hype around Coates has led to inevitable comparisons with the work of James Baldwin among others. But this is perhaps the wrong point of reference, since much of the power of Coates narrative style owes much to the sense of anger and hopelessness about race in America that underpin musical expressions such as hip hop. He is at his best when he is telling stories that are framed around calls for reflection and action and is less strong when he is exploring what can be done to transform the current dilemmas around race in American society and beyond.