Unable to fit in, no-matter-what-circumstances? Take heart!
Sidney Poitier in his memoir disturbs and delights, what with his narratives of childhood escapades that ended happily after all, and narrow escapes that may sent a shiver up the reader''s spine.
From his native Cat Island, all of forty-six by three miles, to the time he leaves the nest in Nassau to live first with an older brother, and later tries to make his own way. Without a formal education to speak of, in a racially biased America, Poitier begins with dishwashing jobs, ingeniously finds his way into the army just to have food and a warm place to stay during the cruel winter.
Poitier is at one and the same time serious and light-hearted, being born as he is at a time when
race and class relations were very real, and the poor, then as today, were at the very bottom, and indeed, dismissed by every social structure.
His
parents are parents as we used to know them. The take their responsibilities so seriously, that even a married daughter must obey the
father’s
rules when she is under his roof. She, too, is not too old to be punished with a beating! And she is sent to fetch the stick with which she is beaten.
The beginning of the successful acting career for which Poitier is so well known
world-wide was almost accidental. Despite the abuse that followed his first attempt at an audition, his determination against all odds won the day.
Poitier has given the film world such gems as Raisin in the Sun; Lilies of the Field; To Sir, With Love; In the Heat of the Night.
Throughout his book, Poitier remembers that his father taught him what the true measure of a man is: how well he is able to provide for his family.