Clarence Thomas’ brutally self-critical autobiography, “My Grandfather’s Son,” bears little resemblance to most early accounts of the book’s contents.
For instance, only at Page 241 — well past the 80 percent mark in a 289-page book — does Thomas reach the subject of Anita Hill’s charges that threw his 1991 Senate confirmation hearings into turmoil. Previous references to Hill as an aide at first the U.S. Department of Education and then the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission foreshadow what’s to come, but except for several derisively critical comments about her job performance, Thomas says nothing new about Hill or her accusations. Indeed, much of Thomas’ account of his angry self-defense at those hearings is drawn directly from his public testimony and little more. Compared with the intensely intimate and emotionally riveting account that Sen. John Danforth, his mentor and close friend, provided in his 1994 book, “Resurrection: The Confirmation of Clarence Thomas,” Thomas’ own revisiting of that traumatic experience seems terse and restrained.
