"Still worringly relevant, and full of political insight. Assata Shakur's style is honest and bracing--speaking of, I loved the way she weaved in her political values even inside her own linguistic system (using markers of AAVE, uncapitalising her "i", respelling "Amerika", etc), and the way she always centers said political values within her narrative: if people might have picked up her book out of voyeuristic curiosity, eager to know the details of her escape, of her private life, eager to witness the signs of her grief when grief was there, Shakur weaponises and thwarts this curiosity in order to inform, encourage, convince, persuade, prove and disprove, and if you're receptive to her message or are already convinced--radicalize (I use that word positively); she balances privacy and openness beautifully, and there's also a solid literariness to the way she constructs the paralleling of her individual experiences, both in childhood and as an activist, with her powerful societal commentary.

I especially enjoyed the parts of said societal commentary, when Assata shares her political, sociological and historical knowledge and connects it to its real-time consequences. She's always very accessible, but almost always avoids simplifying, and doesn't hesitate to show her own learning progression, the flaws in her logic, the tools of her critical thinking, the shortcuts she might have taken and why, turning herself into the self-reflective and constantly learning subject she encourages us all to become. Anyway, you get it: it's an important book."