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elisabethian's review against another edition
2.0
I read this book for my Latinx Literature and Cultures class my second semester of my first year. It is quite late and I am not going to attempt a massive review due to also having more work to be done, but I will say a few words.
This book does a good job of telling how growing up Afro-Latinx in Harlem may have been for people who are not those people. I enjoy that nothing was sugar-coated and everything was told authentically as possible. I do not have many qualms with the book, except that it is just not my type of book, and I often don’t enjoy nor understand books written by male authors about boyhood and manhood, but I try to understand. My only real gripe about this book and its author is how he had very little respect for women, even his own mother, and even near the end, he did not seem to have much respect for women at all.
This book does a good job of telling how growing up Afro-Latinx in Harlem may have been for people who are not those people. I enjoy that nothing was sugar-coated and everything was told authentically as possible. I do not have many qualms with the book, except that it is just not my type of book, and I often don’t enjoy nor understand books written by male authors about boyhood and manhood, but I try to understand. My only real gripe about this book and its author is how he had very little respect for women, even his own mother, and even near the end, he did not seem to have much respect for women at all.
princessklee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
sarabz's review
4.0
This memoir of growing up as a black puerto rican in spanish harlem in the 50's was very well written. He maintains a very approachable style while at the same time achieving a poetry to his prose.
This book made me think about what i'll call "memoirs of the dispossesed" as a genre (anyone know a more legit title for this genre?). Each decade since the 50's seems to have published a few of these. I wonder about how they are marketed and what the audience ends up being and who the authors are writing for and how that has changed over the years. Reviews often focus on the "read this and learn about the seedy underbelly of life among the oppressed" aspect (probably because the reviewers tend to come from priviledge) but there is also the place of validation and self-assessment that is there for people who don't often see themselves reflected realistically in popular literature (especially in the 50's and 60's).
I would love to read an analysis of this. I'll have to do some searching...
This book made me think about what i'll call "memoirs of the dispossesed" as a genre (anyone know a more legit title for this genre?). Each decade since the 50's seems to have published a few of these. I wonder about how they are marketed and what the audience ends up being and who the authors are writing for and how that has changed over the years. Reviews often focus on the "read this and learn about the seedy underbelly of life among the oppressed" aspect (probably because the reviewers tend to come from priviledge) but there is also the place of validation and self-assessment that is there for people who don't often see themselves reflected realistically in popular literature (especially in the 50's and 60's).
I would love to read an analysis of this. I'll have to do some searching...
catherine_silva25's review against another edition
5.0
This was a hard book to read, but I’m really glad I read. It was great to talk about in classes too. Now to write the essay
wen320's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
nbolden's review against another edition
5.0
Very real. Very raw. Piri's memoir is an gut punching look at race, sex, drugs and crime. Even though it was written a while ago, I think every young man of color should read this.
sarabaggins's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Sexual violence, and Homophobia
mariiachii_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
4.5