Vernon Can Read!

Jordan came to national attention as a civil rights leader--head of the Voter Education Project, the United Negro College Fund, and the Urban League. He is now a prominent corporate attorney and an advisor to such political figures as former President Bill Clinton. This memoir takes us from his childhood in Atlanta, Georgia, through the early 1980s. This may be a case where listening is better than reading. Jordan has a rich and melodious voice; he reads clearly, and where needed, with much emotion. It's hard to imagine a better reader of his sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, but always moving story of life before, during, and since the Civil Rights movement. R.E.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2003 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

October 15, 2001
While Jordan's autobiography garnered interest from the moment its publication was announced, its ultimate form surprises. Disappointment awaits those expecting Clinton/ Lewinsky dirt, since the book "effectively ends in the 1980s. All that has happened to me since then is too close to be considered true memories," Jordan writes. But his narrative mission here is not recent political scandal. Jordan means to "bridge the gap" between the years African-Americans were forced to move to the back of the bus and the time when "a young black girl could be so confident in her humanity that she found it unfathomable that anyone could try and take it away from her." The bridge, of course, is Jordan himself, and he tells his success story with a concentration and devotion that gives it all the fervor and logic of a good long speech. While readers are treated to some particulars of Jordan's youth (waiting tables for his mother's catering business, attending segregated Atlanta schools in the 1940s and early '50s and then the predominantly white DePauw University) and the trajectory of his early career as a field director for the NAACP, executive director of the United Negro College Fund and president of the National Urban League), there are few more personal revelations. With its lack of extraneous detail and its studious avoidance of private thoughts, this is less a traditional memoir than an extended exposition of an impressive CV. Even so, it should remind people of this chapter in American history and Jordan's crucial role in it. (Oct. 22)Forecast:With Jordan's high profile, this is an automatic big seller. If it's marketed correctly, it should have a wide appeal, too—anyone interested in the history of the civil rights movement will appreciate this detailed account of the people and organizations that helped transform a segregated nation.