Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Although The Los Angeles Times reviewer gave Mr. Poitier a generous accolade as "a national treasure," those lofty words are nevertheless incomplete. This fine actor, and the roles he has played as a leading man, taught a generation of men and women the most important lessons possible about racial equality and social justice. He led our collective thoughts at a time when we were most impressionable.

Through his authoritative lead characters for timeless movies -- such as "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" and "In the Heat of the Night" -- Poitier gave the Baby Boomer generation palpable and enduring context for their cultural revolution around equal rights. Martin Luther King delivered the moral imperatives for change: Sydney Poitier enacted the stories that made King's lessons tangible, comprehensible and personal.

This generation is now rapidly passing the hallmark birthdays of 50 and 60 and can learn again from Sydney Poitier, the author. Today's generational zeitgeist includes the pressing need to assess our collective legacies; to leave future generations a more inclusive, humane and just world; and to bequeath our successors a better society than the divisive nation of our youth.

Again, he speaks to a generation that has also admired him since our teen years, a generation that has listened to him as a wise mentor. He taught us right from wrong without a single lecture or admonishment. He just demonstrated what a nation built on equality needed to become.

This book challenges each of us to consider our heritage, not just for the next generation, but for generations yet to be born. Mr. Poitier's bravery, tenacity and humanity are worth further consideration, study and reflection, as inspired by this new book.

Read this masterwork if you're a Boomer. It will remind you of why we sacrificed much and worked hard to help transform Poitier's revolutionary acting roles into mainstream cultural norms today.

Life Beyond Measure is a series of letters to Poitier's great-granddaughter, to be read as she matures from infancy to young womanhood. As such, it is not a straight biographical narrative, rather a compendium of grandfatherly advice intermixed with real life examples from Poitier's marvelous and challenging life.

It seems some of the events are skimmed over - he mentions finding the love of his life in his second wife, but fails to detail the divorce from his first wife and the suffering involved in that. He treats everyone very resepctfully, obviously retaining a good relationship with the first wife, but I think a few lessons detailing that type of event would have been beneficial to his intended audience.

The writing style is fluent and easy to read - it moves best when Poitier is relating tales from his youth on Cat Island or Nassau, or his individual struggles against unemployment or racism. It bogs down some near the end when he begins to wax philospohically on the great mysteries of the universe, and I am not certain all the background information he throws in on society and science was that useful, but still he manages to convey his basic point that mankind needs to be a good steward of this planet and of each other.

All in all, an enjoyable read with a lot of valuable advice couched in warm and accessible prose.

It really takes a man of great internal fortitude to look back on his life with such a critical eye toward informing the future, but screen legend Sidney Poitier has proven to be such a man. He first made an impression in his pioneering role as a top-flight film star in the 1950's and 60's and then through his profound role in the civil rights movement and more recently, on more global political commitments. He has conveyed his evolving passions in a series of increasingly reflective books - first his candid, straight-ahead autobiography, 1980's This Life and then his sometimes fiery, always revelatory memories of being caught in the crossfire of expectations among his racially divided audience in 2000's The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography. His latest book finds the actor, now 81 years old, in a more philosophical mood as he writes a series of letters to his great-granddaughter Ayele.

Ayele was just born in 2005, so it's clear that Poitier wrote this book as a legacy to her and quite a legacy it is. Far less interested this time in opening old wounds, he brings a genuinely inspirational tone to his ruminations on the broad topics he covers here - love, faith, life, death. Yet, he manages to use his expansive personal history when it proves relevant to a topic. Poitier realizes that he is well beyond the age where he needs to document his life purely in chronological, milestone-achieving order. At the same time, he knows he played an essential role in breaking down barriers heretofore closed to blacks despite the limitations put upon him on the big screen. The actor had to be hopelessly idealized, articulate and sexless. Even when he was allowed to be romantically involved in films like For Love of Ivy, it was handled in the most antiseptic manner. And when he spoke out against injustices in films like In the Heat of the Night or Pressure Point, Poitier kept his passions in check with calculated responses that turned into classic set pieces like the argument with his belligerent father in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Barack Obama owes a debt of gratitude to Poitier whose charisma and dignity paved the way for the first serious Presidential run by someone who is not white. However, the actor seems more resigned than enthralled by his pivotal place in history. That must explain why he deals more directly with questions about the existence of a higher power since he worries that the world his great-granddaughter inherits will be continually threatened by religious conflicts. Poitier wants to prepare her for the threats ahead, and in doing so, he shares his hard-earned wisdom in deceptively simple terms. There is a pervasive sense of mortality in the book, and one gets the sense that he is preparing himself for the world beyond. You would think the net effect would be sad, but he manages to give a strong sense of affirmation to the life lessons he shares. I still prefer the comparatively angrier "Measure of a Man" for pure revelation about his legend, but this lucidly written book provides a most fitting coda.