Book Review: Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Review by Tavares S. Carney
Amazon rating: 5 stars
Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts, Jr. is a story about men, their relationships with each other, themselves and their sons, as well as how their past relationships affect their present relationships. This is a novel about James Moses Johnson II, a once famed crooner whose diminishing fame, along with a recent medical diagnosis that threatens his very livelihood, stabs at his ego. Now, James Moses Johnson II sets out on a journey to give much warranted attention to his own son, Trey, as well as his own father. Each of the men, in their own way, have faced or are facing life's challenges that have affected their relationships with each other. Pitts offers dramatic underlying subplots that add steam to the story and also helps readers understand the connection, or lack thereof, between each father and son pair. It is through the main character's recent diagnosis that the emphasis of the story turns to father and son relationships, and hopes of forgiveness and a better life for the future Johnson lineage emerge.

I liked how this story flowed and the awareness brought to the challenges people face as they age and the emotional turmoil a medical diagnosis can bring, not only to the individual but to their family and friends as well.