Measure of a Man

Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier

This book is subtitled a spiritual autobiography. I suppose that Mr. Poitier means spiritual in the sense of an idea like nature since he can't claim to believe in God unless he is 'up against a wall'.

Sidney was born to Evelyn and Reggie Poitier on Cat Island in the Bahamas. He spent his first ten years on that island. He had interesting stories during this time of his life, like the time he nearly drown in a canal. He seemed to come from a good family. I liked learning about his parents.
When he was ten they moved to Nassau. This is were his life became a little more of the world where before he had lived mostly outside of the world. He went to about two years of school where he learned enough reading to get by. He also made friends. This is where he begins to learn that his skin has a color and that color makes a big difference in the way he lives and in the way people see him.
Later he moves to Miami which he doesn't really like. He finally ditches Miami and takes a bus as far away as he can get, which happens to be New York City. He struggles here. Takes odd jobs, washes dishes. He tries out for a theater group and doesn't make it. He tries again later and does. He marries young and has children. He opens his own rib joint and barely makes it by.
He finally makes it into theater and then movies. He doesn't give great particulars, he just seems to know the right people and make the right moves. He makes movies during the 50's and 60's.......a time of great turmoil for the nation with Vietnam and race movements.
The factual parts of this book are interesting. I wish he would have stuck to that......but this was more theoretical/emotional/Sidney's personal view kind of memoir. Those are the parts I didn't like. He seemed to ramble and sometimes I had to speed read. He swore a lot. Some of it was warranted but a lot he just wanted to sound masculine and tough and it made him sound foul and unimaginative.
Rating 2 I loved the history and the facts. I would have loved to hear more about his life as a black man crossing many of the race lines as an esteemed actor. The parts where he just rambled about his life theories and views I could do without. There was a story in there somewhere but I think it was probably only 50 pages long.
Rating R F bomb many times. I would say only the language lead me to this rating though, otherwise clean.