Ekow Eshun has chosen five very different black men and given insights into their individual lives while showing how black men are ‘strangers’ in the West and sometimes in their own lives. I hadn’t heard of Ira Aldridge, a nineteenth century actor and playwright or Matthew Henson, a polar explorer, and their stories were very interesting. I think having Malcolm X in the book meant a name that everyone (surely?) would have heard of?

My own favourite vignettes were those of Frantz Fanon and Justin Fashanu. I have read Fanon but had no knowledge of his efforts to improve psychiatric care of patients in his early medical career. The difficulty he faces is heartbreaking and definitely give a good sense of the man - and the writer he became. Fashanu is ‘famous’ as the first (only) out footballer in England. I knew that but the story focuses on his early life in care and in foster families and knowing what is coming for him, gives a real pathos to the story. I wanted to warn him and somehow help him.

This is clever and empathetic storytelling and shows Ekow Eshun as a writer of great strength and ability and I’ll be looking out for his work going forward.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

I thought this was brilliant & thought-provoking. I really enjoyed the structure and the writing style - I found myself truly immersed in the lives and experiences of these men. The description of this as a 'meditation' is incredibly apt. Highly recommend.

Matthew Henson, Frantz Fanon, Ira Aldridge, Justin Fashanu and Malcolm X; five black men, three of whom I had not either heard of before or known little to nothing about. These men were strangers in the Western world despite their contributions, groundbreaking work and interesting personalities. Eshun masterfully incorporates historical resources and subjective narrative, makes these five men, and with these five men's stories, the black identities, a subject, the main subject of this book.

Eshun's prose is respectful to the important themes covered and the voices of these five trailblazers. I do not wish to give away a couple of the strengths of Eshun's writing style like how he divides each person's/personality's stories into smaller sections and the details about the use of the POVS, but this was one of the strongest elements for me.

This is a thought-provoking and informative book with rich themes and an engaging reimagination of these five men. I am glad it exists.

I've been in a bit of a nonfiction drought recently. Read some decent ones but considering I'd read 26 so far by the time I picked this up, only one stood out (Leftovers by Eleanor Barnett). So this came at the perfect time.

This follows little snapshots of five black men since the 19th century. We see Ira Aldridge take the stage in England, Matthew Henson reaching the North Pole, Frantz Fanon attempt mode humane attempts at psychiatry and then becoming a political radical during the Algerian war of independence, Malcolm X as he separates himself from the Nation of Islam and finally Justin Fashnau as he grows up to become the first professional football player come out.
Interspersed is smaller stories about other men including the authors attempt through therapy to find out who the stranger is that has been haunting his dreams.

Labelled as creative nonfiction, each man's story is like reading a fictional story or diary entry. We follow their every footsteps during the period chosen, their inner thoughts and the treatment they received from being black in a white dominated space. Its a really interesting format, you often forget this is fact not fiction. Of course we can't be sure they thought all these things but the events and actions are real.

I preferred the chapters with the men I hadn't heard of such as Ira Aldridge and Matthew Henson, but that's always the case with books like these. The strength of the book is the writing, really beautiful and compulsive, I found myself hoping Henson would reach the North Pole when I could have easily just googled it. Looking at how all these men despite their stations were strangers in the society of others creates a really thought provoking and insightful read. I'd particularly recommend this to those who don't read much nonfiction but would like to.

Big thanks to netgalley and Penguin for the gifted copy!