This book is an almost open ended approach to the identity of crisis many young men of colour face. Speaking from his personal experiences growing up in a black community in Canada and pursuing education that people within his community may not have experienced, Jivani talks with heart, passion and nostalgia reflecting on the influences that may lead young men to radical ideologies and actions. This is a really interesting and poignant narrative, especially with the current movements we are seeing in regards to race.

This is one of those books where I love the central conceit or premise (in this case, why is it that so many young men are falling prey to radical and violent ideologies in western countries?), but I was less warm on the actual execution. I wouldn't steer anyone away from this book - there are a lot of great facts and I really appreciated the author giving me a vocabulary to talk about various aspects of what we often lump together under the label of toxic masculinity. That said, this book isn't quite sure if it wants to be a memoir or a sociological examination of culture, and therefor isn't entirely successful as either.

I appreciated that this book made me think, but I'm not sure it's entirely successful as an actual book rather than a lecture, long form piece of journalism, or TED talk.

Jamil Jivani is a self-made man of moral integrity and purpose-driven enthusiasm. Risen from Canadian poverty, fatherless since his African father abandoned him along with his two sisters and their white mom, deemed illiterate as a teen and now he's a Yale graduated lawyer who's beaten cancer. I found the bits he shared about his own life to be some of his most compelling, I wish he had gone into more detail about the Ismaili Indians for example, who adopted his African father, and also more about his many public service ventures.

I found the title intriguing, and having already read the rage-race topic covered by Coates and Eddo-Lodge et al, I was hoping that this Young Men angle would prove enlightening. Jivani is an excellent researcher, writer, and speaker, but I would recommend this book more for research than reading. So much of what he wrote about resonated with me, but I found the book to be a bit disjointed.

I liked his correlating Nation of Islam (NOI), Five-Percenters, Muslim Brotherhood and Jihadi radicalization with "the capacity to aspire", particularly as he described his own experiences in Belgium and Egypt. Reading about NOI's core message "this world around us isn't made for you. you don't belong here" reminded me of the Glass Ceiling for women, and Jews being harassed and bullied in present-day Berlin Germany. I laughed out loud at the "White Extremism Problem" Doug Saunders brought up, and rather than haranguing whites for their fragility as Coates and Eddo-Lodge do, Jivani rather effectively impresses on the reader that nobody likes being stereotyped, or judged collectively.