The Broken King

by Michael Thomas

From the author of Man Gone Down—a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award—comes a deeply personal memoir of race, trauma, alcoholism, parenting, mental illness and ultimately hope in a portrait of three generations of Black American men.

In 2007, Michael Thomas launched into the literary world with his award-winning first novel Man Gone Down, a beautiful and devastating story of a Black father trying to claim a piece of the American Dream. Called “powerful and moving . . . an impressive success,” by Kaiama L. Glover on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, Thomas’ debut introduced a writer of prodigious and rare talent. In his long-awaited encore and first work of nonfiction, The Broken King, Thomas explores fathers and sons, lovers and the beloved, trauma and recovery, success and failure in a unique, urgent, and timeless memoir.

The title is borrowed from T.S. Eliot’s line in “Little Gidding”: “If you came at night like a broken king,” and the work ponders the process of being broken. Akin to Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time or Nabokov’s Speak, Memory, Thomas’ memoir unfolds through six powerful, interlocking and overlaying sections focusing on the lives of five men: his father—a philosopher, Boston Red Sox fan, and absent parent; his estranged older brother; his two sons growing up in Brooklyn; and always, heartbreakingly himself. At the center of The Broken King is the story of Thomas’ own breakdown, a result of inherited family history and his own experiences, from growing up Black in the Boston suburbs to publishing a prize-winning novel with “the house of Beckett.”

Every page of The Broken King rings with the impact of America’s sweeping struggle with race and class, education and family, and builds to a brave, meticulous articulation of a creative mind’s journey into and out of madness.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Biography, History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 2017

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Bjørn]

The Broken King deserves a better review than I am capable of writing, nevertheless I’ll try. First of all: ALL the trigger warnings. If you can think of something that triggers you, it’s in this book.

Michael Thomas’ autobiography – or, if you prefer, six memoirs in one, each devoted to a part of his life, forming a never complete picture – is a tough read. I normally don’t take over two weeks to read 400-ish pages, but I needed LOTS of breaks. The scary thing is that we share a lot – no, I can’t really relate to being Black in the US (especially in 2025…), nor do I have the experience of being a tenured professor, but there’s much more. We’re both survivors of…many things Thomas writes about. It was tough reading about them (some things are left off-page and I was thankful for that) and it was also validating and helpful. I haven’t read this book because I enjoy suffering.

There is no happy ending where Thomas, magically cured from his mental illness and his past, falls into the arms of his loving family and all of them laugh as they practice yoga at sunrise. There’s little wellness to be found. Instead, The Broken King presents a life that seems to have taken many lifetimes; as the blurb says, the book “builds to a brave, meticulous articulation of a creative mind’s journey into and out of madness.” I don’t know about the ‘out’ bit. There really isn’t an out bit. When I was reading the final pages, I kept checking the page count, hoping for the out bit.

The writing is gorgeous. It reveals a lot – there are time jumps, sudden introductions of people who haven’t been mentioned before, and yet there is a fluidity to the book, except the fluid is more like tar. It’s a book about pain and anguish and literature and love and otherness and being othered. About never fitting anywhere, even inside your own head. If it were fiction, I’d describe it the way my novels have been described – ‘grimdark AF’. It isn’t, although sometimes I wished it were.

The final section of the book made me feel concerned about the author, because it makes The Broken King feel like a very elaborate suicide note. In fact, Thomas says it, regarding his novel Man Gone Down – “It still seems to me a novel-length suicide note, and that is the dominant autobiographical content. Now, however, I know rather than the protagonist’s, it’s mine.” The six-part structure gives a glimpse into how good Thomas is at compartmentalising, but the final part brings it all together and shows that there is a whole, and that whole is deeply alienated. I thought a few times ‘this man needs a hug’ only to realise I was really thinking about my own reflection in Thomas’s words.

I decided not to rate this book, because I simply can’t. The 1-5 stars system fails here. On some levels it’s six out of five. On other… well, I can’t rate it and so I won’t. I feel too personally about it. I want to protect this book and I have a tendency to want to save wounded animals, and while Thomas has been deeply wounded over and over again, I’d argue he might be bent, very deeply, but remains unbroken. A broken mind could never write The Broken King and dare to send it to a publisher, for everyone to see.

I received a copy of the book from NetGalley. This did not influence my opinion.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving, lyrical memoir that holds the raw weight of trauma and healing — the prose pulses with life even as it confronts darkness.

A uniquely eye-opening read, filled with tragic hopefulness. This is more than a memoir—it’s a lifeboat through the storms of a Black creative mind navigating pain, race, and legacy. It doesn’t just speak; it resonates.

[Cate Guyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Text me if you want to talk about this one… can’t even write a review

[soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

thomas is a revelation of a writer: unflinchingly honest and lyrical. i loved the way he wrote about boston especially - there is a lovely chapter in here about his and his father's experiences at fenway park that was quoted in the new yorker awhile back, which is why i ended up picking up this book, and the rest of it doesn't disappoint. the first half has a really poignant examination of his relationship to his wife's family and how his children are racialized, and i appreciated how well he articulated his approach to writing as craft and yet how disembodied he felt from his success. extremely difficult to read at parts but also so essential and timeless.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I generally read up to 50 pages of a book to decide if I'm committed to finishing it. If I do, then I rate it.

This is different. I'm committed to finishing it, but I have to hit deadlines that aren't allowing me to finish it yet. Powerful, rich in language and structure, and a story that needs to be heard just a little bit at a time to avoid being overwhelmed by its content.

Highly recommend

[Ginny G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t feel this was a cohesive read. The fits and starts made it difficult to follow but the style kept me motivated to keep reading.

I feel like this was more of a journal reconstructed than a true memoir. Regrettably I don’t know more about this man other than he’s battled dark depression and had a difficult yet seemingly loving relationship with his family. I’m left wanting more of the plot lines filled in.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully told, this is an ode to the 5 most important men in the author's life. He deconstructs his relationships with his father, his brother, his two sons and lastly, with himself. All parts can hold their own, but together, it's an intensely personal and powerful read.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Joan]

I cannot measure this book against any other; it stands alone, hence no rating.

The Broken King is as beautiful and painful as its title suggests. Reading such a personal account of a life thoroughly upended by mental illness felt transgressive. I wanted to turn away from the page over and over again, but Thomas’s unique voice kept drawing me back. Read at your own risk.

[River Selby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was stunning. Really beautiful.

[Laura Pakaln · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit long, but so worth it.

[Remoy Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much of modern American life forces you to pick your identity, commit to it, and do whatever you can to fit inside its confines.

Michael Thomas' unflinching, fearless, brutal honesty shows how those strict borders-- even if on the right side of the aisle and seemingly accepting --can be limiting. Unaccepting. Hurtful, even.

His openness of what not being Black enough, man enough, being the caring doting son shows, or of even being the broken, hurting father actually shows that there's these larger flaws in theses overarching systems that organize us. Ones that again, even in the most progressive spaces, the identities that have been molded for us don't fully confront.

That means reading this becomes a must read. It sounds hyperbolic, but I'm not exaggerating. It shows what being honest with ourselves and others can become this sort guide. For ourselves and within our communities. A more true way forward giving us the ability, the language, the truth to hold all the ways our world has broken us.