The New York Times
There are only a few American autobiographies of surpassing greatness…Now there is another one, Nate Shaw's.
Charles McGrath
....Shaw's rich language and high storytelling style make this an eloquent book. -- The New York Times Books of the Century
Robert Coles Book World
Extraordinarily rich and compelling . . . possesses the same luminous power we associate with Faulkner.
New York Times - Dwight Garner
Somewhere along the line, people stopped talking about it. Friends of mine who talk about nothing except Southern literature have barely heard of the book. I pounced on it after I discovered that Richard Howorth, the well-read owner of Square Books, the independent bookstore in Oxford, Miss., utters its title aloud every time a customer asks the question, 'What one book would you say best explains the South?' I wish I could say that, this early spring, I read All God’s Dangers in one sitting. It’s not that kind of book. It’s a meandering thing; its pleasures are intense but cumulative. This book rolls. But it is superb—both serious history and a serious pleasure, a story that reads as if Huddie Ledbetter spoke it while W. E. B. Du Bois took dictation. That it’s been largely forgotten is bad for it, but worse for us. . . . All God’s Dangers . . . deserves a place in the front rank of American autobiographies. There are many reasons, in 2014, to attend to Ned Cobb’s [Nate Shaw’s] story.
Chicago Tribune Book World - Alfred C. Ames
Tremendous . . . a testimony of human nobility . . . the record of a heroic man with a phenomenal memory and a life experience of a kind of seldom set down in print. . . . a person of extraordinary stature, industrious, brave, prudent, and magnanimous. . . . One emerges from these hundred of pages wiser, sadder, and better because of them. A unique triumph!
New Republic - Studs Terkel
Eloquent and revelatory. . . . This is an anthem to human endurance.
New York Times
There are only a few American autobiographies of surpassing greatness. . . . Now there is another one, Nate Shaw’s.
Christian Science Monitor - H.W. Bragdon
The authentic voice of a warm, brave, and decent individual. . . . A pleasure to read. . . . Shaw’s observations on the life and people around him, clothed in wonderfully expressive language, are fresh and clear.
Harvard Educational Review - Randall Jarrell
A triumph of ideas and historical content as well of expression and style.
Baltimore Sun
Awesome and powerful . . . A living history of nearly a century of cataclysmic change in the life of the Southerner, both black and white . . . Nate Shaw spans our history from slavery to Selma, and he can evoke each age with an accuracy and poignancy so pure that we stand amazed.
Time - Paul Grey
Astonishing . . . Nate Shaw was a formidable bearer of memories. . . . Miraculously, this man’s wrenching tale sings of life’s pleasures: honest work, the rhythm of the seasons, the love of relatives and friends, the stubborn persistence of hope when it should have vanished . . . All God’s Dangers is most valuable for its picture of pure courage.
From the Publisher
There are only a few American autobiographies of surpassing greatness. . . . Now there is another one, Nate Shaw’s.” —The New York Times
“Extraordinarily rich and compelling . . . possesses the same luminous power we associate with Faulkner . . . the same marvelous idiom, the same wry, sardonic humor . . . [ it] will stun the listener-reader, hold him in its grip, and never really quite let go of him?” —The Washington Post
“Eloquent and revelatory. When, finally, this big book is put down, one feels exhilarated. This is an anthem to human endurance.” —Studs Terkel, New Republic
“Nineteen seventy-four was a good year for nonfiction writing in America. Robert A. Caro’s monumental biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker, came out. So did Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s All the President’s Men. So did Working, by Studs Terkel, and Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Each was a finalist for the National Book Award. Yet the winner in general nonfiction—the category was then called contemporary affairs—was All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, an oral history of an illiterate black Alabama sharecropper. . . . It is superb—both serious history and a serious pleasure, a story that reads as if Huddie Ledbetter spoke it while W. E. B. Du Bois took dictation. . . . All God’s Dangers . . . deserves a place in the front rank of American autobiographies.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“In moments of joy or grief, [Shaw] is capable of a sort of poetry. . . . Every page of this book is resonant with Shaw’s intelligence, with his delight in the use of the mind. And this is a conscious delight: ‘I’ve learned many a thing that’s profitable to me, and I’ve learned a heap that ain’t profitable, but to learn anything at all is a blessin’.’” —Wendell Berry, The Nation
“The authentic voice of a warm, brave, and decent individual. . . . A pleasure to read. . . . Shaw’s observations on the life and people around him, clothed in wonderfully expressive language, are fresh and clear.” —H. W. Bragdon, Christian Science Monitor
“Astonishing . . . Nate Shaw was a formidable bearer of memories. . . . Miraculously, this man’s wrenching tale sings of life’s pleasures: honest work, the rhythm of the seasons, the love of relatives and friends, the stubborn persistence of hope when it should have vanished. . . . All God’s Dangers is most valuable for its picture of pure courage.” —Paul Gray, Time
“A triumph of ideas and historical content as well of expression and style.” —Randall Jarrell, Harvard Educational Review
“Tremendous . . . a testimony of human nobility . . . the record of a heroic man with a phenomenal memory and a life experience of a kind of seldom set down in print . . . a person of extraordinary stature, industrious, brave, prudent, and magnanimous. . . . One emerges from these hundreds of pages wiser, sadder, and better because of them. A unique triumph!” —Alfred C. Ames, Chicago Tribune Book World
“Awesome and powerful. . . . A living history of nearly a century of cataclysmic change in the life of the Southerner, both black and white. . . . Nate Shaw spans our history from slavery to Selma, and he can evoke each age with an accuracy and poignancy so pure that we stand amazed.” —Baltimore Sun
Washington Post Book World - Robert Coles
“Extraordinarily rich and compelling . . . possesses the same luminous power we associate with Faulkner.
From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY
"There are only a few American autobiographies of surpassing greatness. . . . Now there is another one, Nate Shaw's." —The New York Times
SEPTEMBER 2014 - AudioFile
This book is an absolute aural treat. It’s the transcription of an oral history told by Nate Shaw, an elderly African-American sharecropper living in the South. While the written words might be interesting, in audio they are absolutely transfixing. Sean Crisden narrates the work with just the right regional accent, cadence, and pacing. Even the ramblings seem natural. It takes several minutes to get used to the strong rural accent—such as dropped “g's,” “de” instead of “the,” and other regional pronunciations—but after that, it's like listening to a master storyteller spin the tales of his youth and adulthood. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
