In the little bit of this book I read, Coates said a number of thoughtful, insightful things. And that's great. But I hate the way he writes this so much. I've read articles by him before that I liked, but the dense and flowery writing of Between the World and Me is like reading a 16th-century pamphlet on a nobleman's struggle with gout.

Often he seems to just be playing with language for the fun of it. His constant use of the word "body" in sentences that would commonly use words like "safety" or "life" seems to have become popular, but to me it is distancing; with Coates, the definition of "body" feels indistinct, becoming whatever he wants it to be in that particular sentence.

According to my Kindle the book can be read in two hours, and I'm sure the guy has a lot of interesting things to say, but I find the style so aggravating, so floaty, so indirect in its directness, that I found reading it close to intolerable.