Supreme Discomfort - by Kevin Merida & Michael Fletcher (Paperback)

About the Book

The authors track the personal odyssey of Clarence Thomas from his poor childhood in Georgia to his law school years at Yale and his rise within the Republican political establishment. They offer a portrait of a man who straddles two different worlds and is comfortable in neither.

Book Synopsis

"[An] impeccably researched and probing biography . . . invaluable for any understanding of the court's most controversial figure."--The New York Times Book Review

A sweeping, compelling portrait of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and "an unflinching look at success and race in America" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), from two Washington Post journalists

There is no more powerful, detested, misunderstood African American in our public life than Clarence Thomas. Supreme Discomfort is a haunting account of an isolated and complex man, savagely reviled by much of the Black community, not yet entirely comfortable in white society, internally wounded by his passage from a broken family and rural poverty in Georgia to elite educational institutions and finally to the pinnacle of judicial power. His staunchly conservative positions on crime, abortion, and, especially, affirmative action have exposed him to charges of heartlessness and hypocrisy.

Supreme Discomfort is a superbly researched and reported work that features testimony from friends and foes alike who have never spoken in public about Thomas before--including a candid conversation with his fellow justice and ideological ally, Antonin Scalia. It offers a long-overdue window into a man who straddles two different worlds and is uneasy in both--and whose divided personality and conservative political philosophy will deeply influence American life for years to come.

Review Quotes

"The authors superbly deconstruct Thomas's multiple narratives of critical life-events--the accounts vary depending on his audience--and it says much for their intellectual integrity that though they are clearly critical of their subject, their presentation allows readers to make their own judgments."--New York Times Book Review

"Clarence Thomas, even as the quiet justice, is a clanging symbol of politics and race in our time. I can't think of two writers I'd rather have cut through the cacophony of the Thomas mythology than Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher. In Supreme Discomfort, they have found the divided soul that divides a nation."--David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father

"An engrossing biography of a conflicted man . . . [Merida and Fletcher] have done a superb job with this both harsh and sympathetic life of Clarence Thomas . . . an unflinching look at success and race in America."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

About the Author

Kevin Merida is an associate editor at the Washington Post. He has been a national political reporter for the paper, a feature writer for its "Style" section, and a columnist for the Post's Sunday magazine. In 2000 he was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists.

Michael Fletcher covers the White House for the Washington Post, where he has been a reporter since 1995. He has previously covered education and race relations, chronicling issues including the racial achievement gap, racial profiling, criminal justice disparities, and the battle over the future of affirmative action.