The New York Times Book Review - Jamil Smith
Matt Taibbi…properly depicts the Garner killing as a consequence of our society's ills. Its title…seems to imply a narrow focus on the Garner killing, belying the book's prismatic approach to both the people and policies involved in Garner's life and death…I Can't Breathe is a work of deep reporting, as chapter by chapter, Taibbi introduces us to individual players—from Garner's fellow street hustlers in the beleaguered Tompkinsville section of Staten Island to activists who protested the grand jury's refusal to indict Pantaleo (a man whom we also get to know much better, as Taibbi unearths what he can of his past). The story of the Garners' tumultuous and often combative family life is told by people who were there, including Garner's daughter Erica, an activist. In this book, humanization does not equal lionization, and sympathy is never confused for pity. This applies to everyone, in particular the book's principal subject…If readers are unfamiliar with the fatalism and frustration that racial discrimination, poverty and poor policing engender in men like Eric Garner, Taibbi provides an able introduction.
From the Publisher
A complex and textured examination of the complicated personalities, flawed legal system, and politics revolving around the police killing of forty-three-year-old Eric Garner, whose final words became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.”—The Boston Globe, “Must Read Books for the Fall”
“[A] brilliant work of narrative nonfiction . . . [Matt] Taibbi is unsparing is his excoriation of the system, police, and courts that led to the fatal choke hold and worked to blur the abuse afterward. . . . This is a necessary and riveting work.”—Booklist (starred review)
“[A] searing exposé . . . After deeply exploring Garner’s life from a variety of perspectives, Taibbi offers detailed reporting about the out-of-control Staten Island police officers present at the death scene . . . [and] the futile efforts of the Garner family to achieve posthumous justice. . . . What emerges from the author’s superb reporting and vivid writing is a tragically revealing look at a broken criminal justice system geared to serve white citizens while often overlooking or ignoring the rights of others.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Matt Taibbi’s I Can’t Breathe marries the best instincts of explanatory narrative journalism with uncompromising moral clarity. The result is a riveting walk through decades of policing policy and big city politics that culminated, seemingly inevitably, in Eric Garner’s killing by the New York Police Department. While he may have set out to document a fatal injustice, the tale Taibbi tells is not one of a death, but one of a life. In capturing the fullness of Garner’s ‘imperfect humanity,’ I Can’t Breathe adds a vital account of police violence and a vivid exploration of its lingering costs. Taibbi, through thorough reporting and captivating writing, captures the totality of an American tragedy.”—Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize–winning national correspondent for The Washington Post and author of the New York Times bestselling They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement
Library Journal
10/01/2017
Video of Eric Garner's 2014 death in Staten Island, NY, went viral, giving rise to a cause célèbre. The 6'3", 350-pound black man died at the hands of NYPD officers while being choked and restrained on a street corner for allegedly selling unpackaged and untaxed cigarettes. Investigative journalist Taibbi (The Divide) employs Garner's killing as a pivot to examine the personal costs, politics, and social realities of how seemingly insubstantial encounters result in the repeated police killings of black men. Sixteen brief chapters and an epilog provide backstory along with biography, portraits of family and friends, neighborhood social history, organized protests, and an exposé of policing policy and court procedure. More than the detail of a single tragedy of excessive police force, Taibbi exposes attitudes, behaviors, institutional and societal failures, and mentalities that enable such repeated acts of violence under the color of law, giving rise to calls for reform and protests. VERDICT A must-read for anyone interested in examining the divide between what gets excused in the name of "law and order" and what it truly means to protect and serve. An insightful, important account for all readers.—Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe
OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile
Police brutality against African-Americans is depressingly common, but the 2014 case of Eric Garner was in a class by itself. A cell phone video captured his dying gasps—”I can’t breathe”—as he was trapped in a choke hold by a police officer. Narrator Dominic Hoffman’s gravelly timbre and tough tone are an ideal fit for this outstanding piece of journalism. There is a lot of dialogue here—a testament to Taibbi’s outstanding reporting—and Hoffman expertly characterizes New York and African-American speech without slipping into caricature. He also manages to capture Taibbi’s dark and occasionally sarcastic humor when recounting the injustice of the Garner case and others like it. The account loses some steam in the final couple of hours, but the slow denouement won’t be enough to defuse the anger listeners will feel at the end of this powerful narrative. D.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2017 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
