My Grandfather's Son

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My Grandfather's Son (Justice Clarence Thomas )

"I wept beyond tears, slipping into the barren, rhythmic heaves of a body seeking something more."

The poetic words of inconsolable grief were penned by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his newly released memoir, My Grandfather's Son. In this moving passage, he describes his agony in the days following the death of the man that came to be "Daddy". The book is filled with magnificent prose in which one of the most powerful men in America repeatedly dares to bare his soul - dares to make himself vulnerable to the cold, hard world of cynics in which we live.

U.S. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas (Front R) and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer (Back R) walk with bishops from the Red Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington, September 30, 2007. Several Supreme Court Justices attended Red Mass, celebrated annually in the Catholic Church for judges, prosecutors, attorneys, law school professors and students, and government officials.

In a pin-striped town where pretending and pretentiousness are the status quo, it is startling to hear a man at the highest positions of power be so honest about his heartaches, fears, and painful memories. The result? My Grandfather's Son has the potential to be the most life-changing book of our era.

Review by By Rebecca Hagelin (townhall.com)