Alienation and Freedom

The life and work of Frantz Fanon

If you’re reading this there’s a decent chance you have read Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth or know that you should have done and feel bad about not getting around to it yet. Good news: An unread classic is an occasion for joy, not shame, since it represents a fresh opportunity to be moved by a work of profound genius. Anyway, this lengthy piece by Adam Shatz, pegged to a new assemblage of Fanon’s previously uncollected pieces, functions as both potted biography and intellectual introduction and is a good place to start if you are about to work your way up to Wretched and a great refresher course if the passage of time has somewhat dimmed your recollection.

LRB · Adam Shatz · Where Life Is Seized: Frantz Fanon’s Revolution