Pulling the Chariot of the Sun

A Memoir of a Kidnapping

De: Shane McCrae

Narrado por: Shane McCrae

Vulture’s #1 Memoir of 2023

An unforgettable, “lyrical and poignant” (The Washington Post) memoir by an award-winning poet about being kidnapped from his Black father and raised by his white supremacist grandparents.

When Shane McCrae was three years old, his grandparents kidnapped him and took him to suburban Texas. His mom was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him from his father. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, refusing to acknowledge his heritage—all the while believing they were doing what was best for him.

For their own safety and to ensure the kidnapping remained a success, Shane’s grandparents had to make sure that he never knew the full story, so he was raised to participate in his own disappearance. But despite elaborate fabrications and unreliable memories, Shane begins to reconstruct his own story and to forge his own identity. Gradually, the truth unveils itself, and with the truth, comes a path to reuniting with his father and finding his own place in the world.

A revelatory account of an American childhood that hauntingly echoes the larger story of race in our country, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun is written with the virtuosity and heart of one of the finest poets writing today. A powerful reflection on what is broken in America—this is “an essential story for our times” (Hilton Als, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of White Girls).

©2023 Shane McCrae (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

An important subject that doesn’t deliver

I learned more about skateboarding boarding tricks than the impact of his upbringing and relationships

I should have gotten the book.

First off---heart breaking and rage inducing. The story hit way too close to home for me to really 'like'--but that is not to say it's a bad story. I was a bit disappointed to not get more of the story taking place AFTER he found his dad--but eh. Not my story, is it?

Mr. McCrae certainly came across as a poet! And I think I would have enjoyed everything much more, had I been looking at the words and their placement on a page, rather than listening to them being read to me. That being said, he did a fine job reading to me. :)

Worst narration- very hard to follow writing style

This was like listening to a six hour run on sentence. Very disappointing, and not worth the money/credit spent.

A poet’s memoir

A lyrical memoir as much about the vagaries of memory as it is about the shocking inciting events: grandparents’ kidnap of their toddler grandson. Despite that fiery premise, don’t come here expecting a plot-forward memoir, instead, it’s the writers attempts to put together the fragments (and presumably gain some ownership of) a traumatic and abusive childhood. Very well done all around.

A memoir of forgotten memories

This is an interesting book. While he was kidnapped by his racist grandparents, it's not quite what it seems. McRae is a poet and the books often times reads like its own epic poem except the subjects it explores, such as Skateboarding, Acne, middle school popularity, Winona Ryder and the bonafides of such late 80's bands as Faith No More and Dinosaur, Jr makes the book far more accessible. The prose is lyrical, purposely repetitive, and despite his particular unique life story, relatable. This is not anything like a straight -forward true crime story as perhaps one might be tempted to believe based on the byline. Rather, it's a book about what we remember, what we think we remember, what we couldn't have forgotten and how childhood trauma, in this case pretty extreme PTSD, affects who we are and will become.

I will buy the printed version

While I I loved the author’s reading of his book, there were so many beautiful, poetic thoughts that I started writing them down. Until there were just too many. The book was not what I had expected. I look forward to reading more by McCrae.

A Lyrical Reflection on a Traumatic Childhood

This is a moving meditation on a sense of self pieced together from trauma-shattered memories. Although it’s not written in verse, the book has a lyrical, poetic rhythm and style. Its repetitions within repetitions (repetitions of words, repetitions of phrases, repetitions of stories) - with all their variations - make the book feel more like a Bach fugue or a blues ballad than a prose narrative, and that suits the subject matter of half-remembered memories perfectly. Because of its musicality, the audiobook format might be the best way to experience this memoir, and McCrae narrates it masterfully.

i keep looking for something to happen

I did not like the cadence of the narrateur. The story was almost flat. I didnt like how he would repeat phrases. or sentences. I was ver difficult to finish. I didnt realize it was the end at the end.