Joining forces with renowned African-American writer Wiley (Why Black People Tend to Shout), King, a son of the slain civil rights leader, and president, CEO and chairman of Atlanta's King Center, searches for answers to the question "Free at last. Was I? Were we?" The authors combine research from newspapers, documentaries, FBI records, books and King's own childhood memories in this abridged audio translation. While King's matter-of-fact tone and nearly monotone reading come off somewhat as recited, it somehow seems essential to the audiobook's credibility. By turns hopeful and bitter, King offers unique observations on topics including theories on his dad's assassination, the school system, the film industry, his fear of intimacy and his lifelong love of music. Candid about the burden and consequences he and his siblings suffered growing up in their father's shadow, and the often misunderstood public perception of his family, King still manages to impart deep emotion through his story, alternately calling himself "one of the royally cursed King children" and a "jumble of contradictions" who was born premature, anxious and worried, and has been "endlessly proving" himself since. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Forecasts, Dec. 2, 2002). (Jan.)
