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How a man should handle himself
When all is said and done, all we really have to define us is how we presented ourselves while on this earth. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Along with this, find The Convention by Jeff Travis. Very spiritual book about extreme bravery. Excellent read as well.
Publié le Mars 16 2007 par Freedom Lover
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› Voir plus de commentaires 5 étoiles, 4 étoiles |
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Spend a few hours with a culture icon of the 60s.
Sidney Poitier has led an extraordinary life that took him from his family centered agricultural life on a remote Bahamas island to the center of American Culture in the turbulent 60s. Along the journey, he learned many lessons as he lived his various personal and professional adventures. This book is about these lessons and how they reconnected him with his roots and...
Publié il y a 16 mois par Pierre Lapointe
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› Voir plus de commentaires 3 étoiles, 2 étoiles, 1 étoiles |
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Entertaining and Intimate, Déc 7 2008
Having admired Poitier's work, I have never had the chance to read anything written by him. In actuality, I had no idea he had even written a book, let alone two. I know for a fact that the grace and poise he shows on screen will come forth in this book.
I'm not usually one for biographies; I find them boring and tideous. But I know I'm in for a treat with this one.
Growing up, my father tried to raise me as a racist. I knew that this was wrong, but in my family it was normal to look down on others who weren't white, who weren't like everyone else.
Thankfully, when I was around twelve or thirteen years old, I saw a movie that changed my life and how I viewed it: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?
The idea that a white woman could date a black man was so amazing to me, sheltered as I was in white suburbia. There was only one black family in my entire neighbourhood and I had little to no exposure to anything that was considered different.
Sidney Poitier's role in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? (as well as that of the woman and man who played his parents) showed me that though different, we were all the same.
I ran out to get The Measure of a Man on Saturday and I'm already more than half way through it. It's been a long time since I have read a book that is life changing and I'm thankful, beyond words, to be reading Poitier's words.
So in the end, all I can say is thank you: Thank you, Sidney, for opening my eyes, thank you for showing me that, despite our differences, we are all human; thank you for being an example for many and thank you for your words.
Thanks you Sidney and thank you Oprah. You have both changed my life for the better and I can never thank you enough.
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Spend a few hours with a culture icon of the 60s., Juil 21 2008
Sidney Poitier has led an extraordinary life that took him from his family centered agricultural life on a remote Bahamas island to the center of American Culture in the turbulent 60s. Along the journey, he learned many lessons as he lived his various personal and professional adventures. This book is about these lessons and how they reconnected him with his roots and with his family.
The book is more a pleasant conversation than an essay. The lessons have no pretense of great discovery, but that probably makes them more valuable by their simplicity. You do not need to agree with all his spiritual reflections to get good value from a few hours spent contemplating the ideas and beliefs of a culture icon.
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Book Club Review, Juil 2 2007
On the whole the book was great and Sydney Poitier is an amazing man. We found the book went in circles a bit and were not sure what his point was once we got near the end of the book.
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A good book by a wonderful actor, Jui 23 2007
In my spare time I don't read a lot of biography books but because it's Sidney Poitier I had to have it. After reading this up I found it to be pretty good but a bit dry in certain areas nevertheless informative along the way. This book does give us incredible journey of his life and he doesn't take credit for who he is, but gives credit to his Creator, his parents and who gave him a hand-up along the way.
In this autobiography you learn what Sidney was thinking and feeling through the span of his life. From growing up on Cat Island and not having any of our modern day conveniences to Nassau, to Miami, and New York. He shares with us his thoughts and feelings and reasons why he made the decisions he did. Personally, I would love to sit, talk, and debate with him for hours. He has always seemed to know who he was and never let anyone tell him otherwise. Sidney found a way to make himself as he knew himself fit into the world instead of changing himself to fit into the world. Sidney shows his thoughtful side by sharing a lot of his personal thoughts with us without dwelling on the bad things in life. He comments on today's youth and the negative benefits of our world where they are used to so many physical things.
"The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography" also provides strength and family value. Sidney Poitier is a noble man and his six daughters are lucky to have a father like him which makes this book worth having.
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How a man should handle himself, Mars 16 2007
When all is said and done, all we really have to define us is how we presented ourselves while on this earth. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Along with this, find The Convention by Jeff Travis. Very spiritual book about extreme bravery. Excellent read as well.
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Like the man---like the book, Mars 12 2007
Normally one to read strictly fiction such as "The Time Traveler's Wife" or "Life of Pi," I instead chose this excellent book by Mr. Poitier. Glad I did. I'm always hesitant to read this type of thing, thinking that either it won't be well written or that some ghost writer will have eeked out all the good stuff and edited out the "real" things. Not so, this book. Mr. Poitier is all over it and his honest and pulls-no-punches book is just the thing for those interested in not only Hollywood and its workings but more so of the man himself.
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Great Beginning but Then it Looses Momentum, Mars 4 2007
I am a big Sidney Poitier movie fan. I have seen every one of his movies.
That said, I loved reading about his childhood and the early parts about him moving to Florida. After that I found it a bit tedious.
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The journey is as important as the destination, Fév 21 2007
A brilliant Book club pick. Telling our stories is important and telling the truth even more so.
Nothing prepared me for the breathtaking prose, divine insight, salty interjections, and brutally honest reflections in Mr. Poitiers spiritual memoir. Having read hundreds of autobiographies (even writing one myself), Angelas Ashes had been the benchmark by which I measured all others. The Measure of A Man takes that peak to an all new level.
I couldnt put it down. Id call my friends, quoting lines: Black and white in the face of real issues are mere cosmetics (149); You dont have to become something youre not to be better than you were. (188). I teared up too. When his mother stands up in the theatre and shouts at her son up on the screen; when young Sidneys life was at stake and he had to walk scores of blocks and not look back (as intense as my mothers first telling of Lots wifes two choices in Sodom & Gomorrah), and, yes, even when his adult sister experienced the tamarind switch.
I read with such focus that on the brilliant page 128, after lines like, The powerful have to forgive themselves for their behaviour. That should be a sacred process, I even noticed two sentences immediately repeated in different words within the last 2 paragraphs. Youre so captivated, you do hang onto each word.
Throughout, I saw my life flash before me. Thankful I had at least one teacher like Mark Thackeray in To Sir With Love (he at the East End, mine at my East Elgin); recalling proudly how I had slapped one of my persecutors as Mr. Tibbs did in The Heat of the Night; and backpacking in Europe with my own Sidney in Europe in 92. I was my friends Charly Blackwell but, oh how I wished I had the presence of mind to have taped our long talks on matters worldly and spiritual.
Sidney Poitier acknowledges the icons of his generation. Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. Men who had no hatred for [those] who had spent a commensurate part of their lives trying to destroy [them]. [They] resented or disliked or hated what they represented. (pg 125).
I believe Mr. Poitier should be added to that list.
If the true measure of a man is how he provides for his children, what a legacy Sidney Poitier has left all of us.
Self-respect. Thoughtful use of (and the importance of) language. Patience and humility. Dignity and grace above all else.
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The Measure of a Man, a literary addition to Poitier's life, Fév 18 2002
Sidney Poitier fans are not hard to come by and would thoroughly enjoy this book, seeing as how the tone of the book is exemplary of Poitier's signature calm and confident demeanor. _The Measure of a Man_ is organized into eleven sections that take the reader sequentially through the main lessons of Poitier's life with insights by the author looking back. Each section contains several stories from Poitier's life, each flowing seamlessly into the next. For example, under the chapter title, 'Life in Black and White' Poitier recalls the Harlem, New York that he loved. He opens with the politics of the area, including the fact that blacks were expected to go into New York City to work, but once the day was over, they were expected to stay far away from downtown, which segways into Poitier recalling the great nightlife of Harlem which in turn leads to a story of a specific man who was able to stay in Harlem as a hot item for one week annually. The man saved his money all year to spend on himself and others in the city in seven days before returning to Poitier's home place, Cat Island. These examples, along with many others support the overall lesson of this section; that the author was faced with discrimination many times, but he did not accept it into his beliefs and was happier with himself and his lifestyle. The highlight of the book for me was understanding how Poitier's beginnings and upbringing support the life of an actor so well. Poitier never comes out and states, "this is what happened when I was a kid and at this moment on stage I drew from it," rather it is left to the reader to make the connections which I rather enjoyed. Any aspiring actor or speaker can take note from Poitier's examples and apply them to their own situation. Anyone faced with adversity can respect and draw strength from Poitier's firm beliefs that had to be proven over and over again. His upbringing comes in to play in this aspect because he was raised in the 1940s but was unaware of racial segregation for the majority of his childhood. Being raised on an island where everyone was black with the exception of two people was helpful for Poitier because he developed his sense of self without the concept of prejudice. When this was introduced to him in his early teens, Poitier was already developed enough to feel confident enough to reject bigotry. I have read other reviews that found tones of "black anger" in Poitier's story and I have found none. I believe he tells his story from his point of view and it is a viewpoint of equality for all men and a view of high self-respect, containing no notable tones of "black anger." Some less enjoyable moments of _The Measure of a Man_ are the times Poitier drops names like a novice at a networking luncheon. Anyone who writes an autobiography thinks enough of himself or his story that he expects others to be interested. Poitier, for the most part does this unpretentiously and without excessiveness. Unfortunately, that makes the few times he does preach all the more noticeable. When recalling a filming, an integral meeting, or a high stakes encounter, Poitier drops a lot of names. Reading through the lists five or six lines long full of names becomes a bit tedious. Another aspect to be aware of is that where as this is a great book for anyone looking to know more about Poitier's career, but anyone questioning about his family or personal life will be disappointed. Sidney Poitier's _The Measure of a Man_, published by Harper SanFransisco is the literary addition to Poitier's life, and is not to be missed by those who respect his work.
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review of measure, Fév 15 2002
The measure of a man is a story of integrity and character,anyone who would like to know something about the true man Poitier is should read this selection, but not just who Poitier is but also anyone who's looking for questions about themselves. Questions of life discipline, integrity. I also recommend it to a person who is open to a broad band of religion and isn't set on one particular religion, but open to a broad christianity. Sidney tells us of religion, but he never tells us of a particular one or group he belongs to, instead he takes things from many religions and kind of lumps all of their values and aspects into one form of his own particular standards and beliefs, he takes us on a journey through time, the trials and tribulations of his own life. The book also tackles the very controversial issue of race and segregation, and breaking through the race barrier, through pure determination.The book starts of with Sidney watching T.V. and not being able to find anything on the television. He's frustrated with the fact that there are 97 channels on the television, but nothing to watch on them. He says he starts to think of "...images of a time in my life when things were so much simpler, when my options for entertainment couldn't be counted on a scale from 1 to 97." From this point the rest of the book is a continual flashback, structured into main points of the authors life from growing up on Cat Island to making movies, and to dealing with international stardom, a journey through time if you will. Its written in a very conversational style of writing, making you believe that your sitting right in front of Poitier himself, watching him tell his story and interacting with him with either disbelief, joy, or laughter. The book is well written from front to back, and because of this and his conversational style of writing, the events he describes, his actions, his feelings and his thoughts, are greatly illustrated. After reading a measure, you don't just feel as if you meet a man, you feel as if you lived with a man, through his struggles and through his success. I enjoyed the book thouroghly, he says in his introduction he didn't want to write a book about his life, instead he "wanted to write a book about life. Just life itself." I think he accomplishes this throughout his book. He doesn't make the focus on his particular life, instead he uses his life as an example to others. He doesn't make it a standard he makes it a lesson, for all to read and all to learn from. It's an intriguing tail of a man who came from nowhere and wasn't given anything or any special treatment, but fought his way to the top, all by himself. It is an inspiring tail of self determination and tells a story everyone can learn from.
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CDN$ 18.99 CDN$ 13.86
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