Hello, I am a 17 years old high school senior who was assigned this book as my summer reading. Now, I read the book from cover to cover and and i thought it was a well written and detailed Memoir about a man (The author) who was on a journey to find himself. I also feel that there were many topics touch upon but not explained. Everything in the book was personal history and not written off of others/general public. Now this is where my classmates come in. One of them made a comment saying the book was "depressing and racist" (they also were only half way through the book) I know that opinions are never true or false but i actually disagreed and i thought that by giving some insight on what this man's intent was it may help them understand the book more. Unfortunately it turned into a heated debate about what the book was about. I gave them detail and back up why the book is not racist. I told them it was a topic used to perpetuate the continuation of the story.
Now am I wrong for giving my honest opinion about the book (seeing that we will be tested on it and asked questions anyway) and do you think that it is a "racist" book or are they not reading enough into the actual story?