Summary

Coates recalls his life in 2007, a period during which he was unemployed and living with his wife, Kenyatta, and son, Samori, in Harlem. He identifies this time in his life as one in a long series of failures, the greatest of which included his failure to be gainfully employed and his failure to figure out how to make a living as a writer. As a condition of receiving unemployment assistance, he was forced to attend a course on personal responsibility.

As Coates sat in the classroom, he engaged in painful musing about the difference between his aspiration to find meaning in his life as a writer and his inability to contribute to his family financially and consistently. His wife advised...