BOURGEOIS BLUES: An American Memoir by...

BOURGEOIS BLUES: An American Memoir by Jake Lamar (Plume: $9; 174 pp.) . Raised in a well-to-do environment by an aggressive, ambitious father, former Time reporter Jake Lamar grew up “too white for black people and too black for white people.” Alienated from both the white middle class and the black underclass, Lamar was a lonely child who had to face his father’s incessant demands. But his faith in overachievement was rudely shattered when he discovered that his father was under investigation for shady business deals. Lamar explores the conflict between outward success (he graduated from Harvard and quickly found a job at Time) and inner desolation in a terse, readable “work of memory” that makes a noteworthy contribution to current debate over role models for young black males.