This hard-cover copy of Adam Shatz's 430-page biography on Franz Fanon, the French West Indian psychiatrist, influential anticolonial revolutionary combatant and advocate, makes a great contribution to the literature on the philosopher's life and times. Any book on Fanon is a welcome addition towards the elucidations of this complex individual, whose contributions to many fields of endeavours included psychiatry, with a unique view on racism and its effect on marginalised people worldwide.

The book aims at what it describes as a portrayal of a ‘traveller of ambiguous origin’. However, at first reading, I have mixed feelings about whether the author succeeds or not. Although it is titled ‘The Rebel's Clinic’, three-quarters of the book deals with his role and activities as a freedom fighter, an aspect of his life which, for obvious reasons, has mixed appeal among Western audiences, and is rarely chronicled in detail. In terms of his contribution to psychiatry, the readers will be rather disappointed. Yes, there are references to his setting up pioneering methods of treatment in the hospitals at Blida, Algeria, and later at the Charles Nicole Hospital, in Tunisia, but the details of these important socio-therapeutic experiments are rather sparse.

Shatz's book uses many corroborative third-person descriptions of Fanon in order to paint a kaleidoscopic picture, with details illustrating the profound influence he may have had on acquaintances, including many coworkers, colleagues and comrades-in-arms, and even from suspected lovers, in one case. This is important in any narrative, almost like a psychiatrist's corroborative details from friends and family.

There are many references which are tangential to the central focus, discussing the men who influenced Fanon, from Sartre to Aimé Césaire, and well-known African liberation leaders like Senghor, Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba. Shatz commendably also looks at Fanon with reference to ideas he propounded in his various books like White Skin, Black Masks (1952) and The Wretched of The Earth (1961). At times the author gets carried away by the romanticised adventures Fanon undoubtedly had as a combatant and soldier in the liberation wars, and later as political representative to newly independent African colonies.

This book itself does not make easy reading, and at the end of the long chapters, I am not sure that I am able to discern any new theories which elucidate the complex paradox that Fanon the philosopher represents, leaving the readers with more questions than answers. But still, I appreciate the author's methodology of using various prismatic images of Fanon from different sources, as well as attempts at understanding the writings of Fanon himself. In conclusion, it would make a great reference book, but in my view it is like a tapestry, with fascinating images packed together, but without a frame.