Another classic, well worth the read. ( )

This was an interesting one. First, let's get the elephant out of the way: the author was a misogynistic homophobic man serving time for serial rape at the time of authorship. The text absolutely in no uncertain terms unapologetically blurts it out. The man had his problems some of which were no doubt due to the system of society that continues to this day. Because of this, there are some still relevant insights to be found here. The text also unconsciously makes his psychological shortcomings fairly blatant but they smacked me in the face when I became lulled by his eloquence. They almost seemed to rear up out of nowhere and disappear again as he ran with his ideas, though looking back their essence is streaked throughout.
The most vital asset of this collection of letters and essays is its earnestness. I believe the man was sincere in his outpouring. He was not the greatest philosopher/political thinker nor were some of his opinions anywhere near progressive or even sympathetic. There are a few weak points in the book. I don't mean his blatant misogyny, homophobia, or reference to his crimes as "an act of revolution" (though any are welcome to avoid this book based on those aspects of the man) but to a couple of sections of the book that possibly due to these backwards beliefs fell short of the immersion of the rest.
The first of these weak bits include the love letters to his attorney, there was nothing there at all for me other than some very awkward and corny lines to wonder at. This section of the book was titled Prelude to Love - Three letters, and the following section titled White Woman, Black Man were the weakest of the whole book. Although, I did enjoy the beginning and some ideas that are floating around in the text of the essay in this section titled The Allegory of the Black Eunuchs. The first fourth of it opens onto the attitudes of young blacks towards older blacks (at least within prison) in a conversation while eating beans. However, the rest of the piece degenerates along the lines of a sex-based discussion of Amazonian black women and the always more desirable white women.
Overall, I'm glad I read it. It is also somewhat demoralizing to have it confirmed through this book that certain points of his anguish are still points of anguish in the American landscape today. I would recommend this book if you're curious and are willing to accept a snippet of sincere life experience and raw individual thought regardless of its repulsiveness or its victimhood or its crimes. ( )

Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver is a memoir and collection of essays originally written in Folsom State Prison in 1965, and published three years later in 1968. In this time of Black Lives Matter it is a book all teens should read.

The book is divided into four sections. They cover the author’s time in prison and his crimes. His coming to a knowledge of who he is as a black man. His romantic interest in his lawyer. What it means to be black and have your own sexual identity.

The first two sections cover material still relevant today. People expected Eldridge Cleaver to be apologetic about his crimes. He, however, pointed out that those who expected this were rich, fat, and supporting a war against the Vietnamese who were starving and terrified. The greater crimes of the rich, he claimed, balanced out his crimes and drug use.

However, he also longed to be clean of drugs and to learn more about black nationalism and communist politics. He felt that being black caused him to have a lesser place in society which was unfair.

These problems of black being treated as less than white in the workplace and in society still resonate today. The wars fought by our rich nation against impoverished nations still exists. The idea that black men are viewed differently if they have sexual attraction to white women still exists.

This book opened my eyes to how much hasn’t changed in 55 years. It gave me a feeling that I must do my part to bring more change. ( )

a really excellent read, especially, somehow, the love letters. (some really really problematic things in there on sex though.)

Fantasticly written description of time spent in jail by the author, with analysis of political and social consequences. Eldridge Cleaver was founding member of Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA ( )

How in the world am I supposed to rate this using stars? Here's my review instead: https://wp.me/p4LPys-mh.

It is difficult to give a rating to this book without also assessing Eldridge as a person. ( )

This is a short book of loosely related ideas by an ex-convict. Soul on Ice is Cleaver’s attempt to understand who he was as a black American growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.. I wouldn't recommend this book as it is very sexist, misogynistic and violent. The conclusion tries to make amends with black women but I’m not sure it succeeds.
The title refers to the Black Man’s existence while under racial, economic and sexual domination by White Men as seen through Cleaver’s personal experience in and out of jail. He was jailed for marijuana possession then went on to rape.
The book offers more than you might imagine but I’m not sure it would justify a reading unless you are into ethnic studies, detention ministry, or 1960s literature.
Years ago, I found a hard cover copy which had photos but I sold it figuring I’d never get around to having the time to read it. I came across this paperback copy and read it. I remember among the hardcover version a photo of Cleaver’s confirmation certificate from when he was in juvenile hall at Los Padrinos, Downey. That facility happens to still exist. I work with other juvenile hall inmates and lived next door to Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. Cleaver talks about what happened during that time and how he became disgusted with the priest giving the sacramental preparation classes. He turned to atheism and then Marxist thought. That led him to National of Islam racist conspiracy theories. Most of Soul on Ice are his own additions to the Nation of Islam views on race hatred of all White People. His exposure to Thomas Merton the Catholic monastic led him reject religion once and for all. Cleaver understood Merton’s thoughts on monasticism to be identical to that of his own prison life. Cleaver never goes back to any type of religious orientation except for African tribal elements.
This book was published in 1968, the same year as the major Tet Offensive in Vietnam which made most television watching Americans, like Cronkite; turn against Westmoreland’s command of the military. The Assassinations of King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy followed Malcom X’s earlier death in 1965. This book is dripping in anger and frustration with no way to make sense of civic life as lived by African Americans during the Vietnam War.
The Russians were actually able to influence the Vietnam War through funding dissident groups like the communist party and Black Panthers as they called the war unlawful and changed media coverage since the Russians wanted to the US leave the country so that the North Vietnamese could easily conquer the south. We know this from the FBI files on their monitoring of subversives. Cleaver’s thinking is exacting what the Russians were hoping to spread within the US.
Cleaver spends a lot of time criticizing James Baldwin’s writing and revering the memory of Malcom X after Malcom had left Elijah Mohammed’s Nation of Islam. Cleaver’s early life was spent in Watts, Los Angeles until he went to state prison. Julius Erving (Dr. J) says in his autobiography Erving that he when he first met Lew Alcindor on the blacktop basketball court, Alcindor was reading Soul on Ice.

I think this should be a high school must read. ( )

As I read I felt in the presence of a man without doubt of any kind. I read it with a sense of loss, however: an awareness of lost momentum, lost years, lost confidence that something radically better was about to happen for African Americans, something I believe Cleaver thought when he wrote this work. There is no doubt that parts of this work are so deeply misogynistic and homophobic that it's difficult to defend my positive take on it. The review is not for the man or his beliefs as a whole, but for the power of this book to open a window into a strange and unsettling era, and to come away with more understanding of that era.

For example, Cleaver in one section justifies his rape of (more than one?) woman as a natural outcome of the hundreds of years of white men raping black women, and killing black men, rather than a private act of violence for which Cleaver feels moral responsibility. Just as John Brown (who Cleaver canonizes) is a murderous lunatic in one context, for killing people for the cause of abolition, in another context, for example after Lincoln declared war, killing people becomes just. In this manner Cleaver forgives himself for his acts of violence toward women (or actually never gets around to thinking he would need forgiveness).

A good companion book to this memoir is Susan Brownmiller's [b:Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape|103180|Against Our Will Men, Women and Rape|Susan Brownmiller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320435643s/103180.jpg|99474].The matter of fact way that Cleaver suggests the violation of women's bodies is an act of self-identity, as well as an act of war, is repulsive and horrible, and yet it reflects the truths of almost any war zone ever documented. It also gives insight to the reader, in a very visceral way, how fundamental rifts in identity politics between Black Power and Feminism clashed and contradicted one another in this era. ( )

What began as a genuinely compelling look at a young man with a lot of anger and little direction, became a story of a man completely sure of himself, and almost entirely unrelatable. I definitely understand why he was angry, and early on he actually makes some valid points, and even mixes in a little humor. However, when he goes into diatribes about homosexuality, it makes me stop and reassess the man. It comes off a little hypocritical and weak minded. The worth of this book to me was a look at a life that I will never know. I'll never be the minority with the kind of problems he faced. God willing I'll never end up in jail. There were parts of this book that were eye opening and make me rethink my own opinion on some things. The rest of it is the ramblings of a man full of rage, hurt, and aching to find his path. ( )

Once revolutionary, now a period piece. Most notable for feminist readers is Cleaver's section on "practicing" raping white women by raping black women. Not pretty. ( )

I choose to write a paper on this book in college thinking this would be regular bio. To say Cleaver is complex is an understatement. All I can say is be ready for the *rage*... ( )

I think that you have to read and consider this book as a product of its times (originally published in 1968). I mean, everyone who cares knows that Eldridge Cleaver went on to become a member of the Mormon church (although he wasn't very active), then dinked with some other religious groups, merged with the right wing, ran for the Senate as a Republican, and supported Reagan for president. So -- people change. But at the time this book was written, Cleaver was an angry man, and this book reflects a bit of the invective espoused at the time, and not just by Cleaver. Furthermore, he had every right to be angry, considering what was happening back then in the area of civil rights -- Vietnam, the death of Malcolm X, race riots, etc. Put into historical perspective, you've got an awesome source for the viewpoint of some radical Blacks of the time, you know, the ones who felt like Black America had to get up and do something.

And, if you judge this book by the writing, Cleaver is considerably eloquent, able to express himself well through the written word.

I'd recommend this one to people who want to put themselves in the mindset of one facet of that era. I wouldn't espouse his politics, but you do have to take into account that had their not been people like Cleaver, or Angela Davis, or Malcolm X (and the list goes on), who didn't sit quietly and hope for change, African-American people might just find themselves continuing to live in the status quo of that time, and then where would someone like Obama be? Not that I agree with their methodologies, but at least people took notice. ( )

While there are a few inspired chapters, for the most part it's a self-important and misanthropic rant...

Read the rest of my review of Soul On Ice on my blog, The Nerd is the Word.

http://nerdword.blogspot.com/2007/03/soul-on-ice-200701-entered-from-sun.html ( )

First read this when I was a freshman in college. 1968 was a scary year. After some campus turmoil, our gymnasium was burned out. The scorched skeleton remained as a poignant reminder for many years.
The book laid a guilt trip on a lot of white folks and seemed to predict an impending storm of racial violence. The author was a prison inmate at the time he wrote it, but his cry for freedom was not a personal one. The lesson I came away with was that when one segment of our society is oppressed, the morality of the whole is seriously compromised.
Eldridge Cleaver's conversion to Christianity which came later was no surprise to me. He spoke with the voice of compassion and conviction which I associated with Jesus. I don't own his later book which speaks of the fire which melted his heart of ice--but I want to find it.