My Grandfather's Son: Clarence Thomas Memoir

October 9, 2011

Provocative, inspiring, and unflinchingly honest, My Grandfather's Son is the story of one of America's most remarkable and controversial leaders, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told in his own words. Thomas speaks out, revealing the pieces of his life he holds dear, detailing the suffering and injustices he has overcome, including the acrimonious and polarizing Senate hearing involving a former aide, Anita Hill, and the depression and despair it created in his own life and the lives of those closest to him. In this candid and deeply moving memoir, a quintessential American tale of hardship and grit, Clarence Thomas recounts his astonishing journey for the first time.

The book spans all of Thomas's life to the present, beginning with his early childhood in the Deep South and his mother's decision to send him and his brother to be raised by her father and stepmother as she felt unable to care for them. He tells of his upbringing by his grandparents, his time in college and law school, and his career in government. Particular attention is focused on his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The memoir discusses Thomas's emotional distress over divorcing his first wife, his intellectual evolution to conservativism, and the financial troubles that plagued him up through the late 1980s. It also includes a confession about his previously unknown struggle with alcohol.

My Grandfather's Son was praised for its frank tone and well-written style. However, it was also criticized as being too partisan for a sitting Supreme Court Justice and for over-emphasizing claims of victimhood. Much of the media attention centered around his chapters on the confirmation hearings, one of which was titled "Invitation to a Lynching." Thomas received a $1.5 million advance for the book, which hit number one on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list.

William Grimes, in his book review for The New York Times, describes Thomas' writing of his time at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under President Ronald Reagan (which, Grimes writes, made him an 'object of contempt and derision for mainstream civil rights organizations") as "adopting a defensive crouch, lashing out at his enemies, reopening old wounds and itemizing insults that should be forgotten." Grimes describes Thomas' treatment of the Anita Hill affair as a portrayal of "himself as a persecuted, almost Christlike figure singled out by the liberal establishment, at the behest of his civil rights enemies, not just for criticism but also for total annihilation."