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minker's review against another edition
challenging
sad
slow-paced
1.0
This book was awful to get through. It started as a novel about his life but also contained lots of research. Many sections it was hard to tell if the writer/narrator was discussing his life or others with no suggestion about a change in who the narrator was discussing. The narrator also went from using slang to âSATâ words, some incorrectly.
tracithomas's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
I really liked this book. Jackson's writing is so good. His voice is clear and he finds ways to inject humor and wonder into his own story. Sometimes it get a bit too meandering. That slowed me down in a way where I would disconnect a bit from the text. It is an incredibly ambitious book which pays off (mostly).
jn0el's review against another edition
5.0
Highly recommend, especially for Portlanders looking to understand our recent history from a Black man who grew up here.
arielamandah's review against another edition
4.0
Iâve been chipping away at this book for a few months now. Itâs heavy stuff. Jackson is a great writer, but the subject matter is something better swallowed (for me) in doses. Iâll be honest: I didnât like it all. As other reviewers have noted, Jacksonâs writing about and treatment of women is fairly problematic. But, at the same time, this feels like one of those books where my job is more to learn and witness rather than critique. Hearing him describe a Portland that was night-and-day different from the one I lived in (even though we overlapped some), was eye-opening and made me feel naive, at times.
runningonwords415's review against another edition
4.0
I went back and forth on this rating because I didnât care for the structure of the novel, but I left with so much more insight about the Black male American experience, racism in Portland, and nuances of addiction, criminal justice systems, and gang life. Jackson is an incredibly talented writer. His extended metaphors and allegories - âWe are the Native Sons of the Invisible Man our father wasâ - kept me captivated and had authentic transparency throughout each chapter, especially in his Survival Files chapters. Overall, an enlightening and real read.
theythemsam's review
3.5
I have a hard time rating this book cuz yes, people change and this author has been through a lot, but the way he had treated women in the pastâŚidk. But his letter to his daughter in the end was very beautiful. I feel this is still a good book just cuz of his writing and his history, but damn, I feel so bad that these women had to go through that with him. Also I felt like I didnât need all the parables and anecdotes of him relating words to his stories, but I didnât necessarily hate them either
mkesten's review against another edition
4.0
If I were to re-read Odysseusâ trials with Circe and the many other women of his travels home from the Trojan War, I would get a sense of the scope of Mitchell Jacksonâs journey toward an understanding of his own behaviour toward women in that crazy off-kilter society in which he grew up in Portland, Oregon.
Jackson knows his relations with women are very problematic. He promises but he cannot deliver. Emotionally. In commitment. Even giving women basic respect. But he doesnât seem to pay for it until his daughter grows up and his behaviour fills him with guilt and dread.
Jacksonâs memoir/thought experiment âSurvival Math: Notes on an All-American Familyâ at times reads like The Odyssey, at other times like Danteâs visit to the underworld, and so much like a satire of American life.
This is no satire.
It is his life and the recollections of the many men in his family who did time in the slammer, or had a life âgangbangingâ, or drug addiction, or early death. This is an âAll-Americanâ family in spite of what white supremacists would like us to believe. This is a story of one not particularly unusual black family in America.
As a youth Jackson navigates between the aspirations of his mother that he get an education and create a stable life for himself and the lives of his many male role models whose great achievements will have been to survive gangstas, gangs, a complex judicial system, the opportunities of dealing in drugs.
His own family, though, is mired in violence and drugs and splintered family relations. That Jackson himself didnât do upwards of five years in a high security prison was unusual in his family.
Are they bad people or to be admired when they succeed given the rules of the game?
Whether or not you took up drug dealing in his neighbourhood, you had to take sides and create a survivable persona. You had to speak a certain way. You had to walk a certain way, and you had to pay homage to dangerous characters.
I grew up in a somewhat bullying environment, and some would say I learned these characteristics well. But how would my survival skills stack up in Jacksonâs neighbourhood? Hmmm....
Talk about navigating the shoals of Scylla and Charybdis. Jackson learns the subtle art of selling dope as a high schooler and uses it to finance his education. But this lands him in jail and only fast talking saves him from losing his place in college.
Jackson is an athlete, as are many of his friends. But the bob and weave on a basketball court doesnât prepare you for navigating your emotions, the anger you store up inside of you for the father who wasnât there, for the other father figures who lied, who beat up your mom, who built a business as a pimp, and then tore it down with drug addiction.
Finding your feet in this community is harrowing to say the least and it seems Jackson struggles with it to this day.
I found this book terribly difficult to read. Much of the gangsta dialect simply defeats me.
But, what writing!
Jackson knows his relations with women are very problematic. He promises but he cannot deliver. Emotionally. In commitment. Even giving women basic respect. But he doesnât seem to pay for it until his daughter grows up and his behaviour fills him with guilt and dread.
Jacksonâs memoir/thought experiment âSurvival Math: Notes on an All-American Familyâ at times reads like The Odyssey, at other times like Danteâs visit to the underworld, and so much like a satire of American life.
This is no satire.
It is his life and the recollections of the many men in his family who did time in the slammer, or had a life âgangbangingâ, or drug addiction, or early death. This is an âAll-Americanâ family in spite of what white supremacists would like us to believe. This is a story of one not particularly unusual black family in America.
As a youth Jackson navigates between the aspirations of his mother that he get an education and create a stable life for himself and the lives of his many male role models whose great achievements will have been to survive gangstas, gangs, a complex judicial system, the opportunities of dealing in drugs.
His own family, though, is mired in violence and drugs and splintered family relations. That Jackson himself didnât do upwards of five years in a high security prison was unusual in his family.
Are they bad people or to be admired when they succeed given the rules of the game?
Whether or not you took up drug dealing in his neighbourhood, you had to take sides and create a survivable persona. You had to speak a certain way. You had to walk a certain way, and you had to pay homage to dangerous characters.
I grew up in a somewhat bullying environment, and some would say I learned these characteristics well. But how would my survival skills stack up in Jacksonâs neighbourhood? Hmmm....
Talk about navigating the shoals of Scylla and Charybdis. Jackson learns the subtle art of selling dope as a high schooler and uses it to finance his education. But this lands him in jail and only fast talking saves him from losing his place in college.
Jackson is an athlete, as are many of his friends. But the bob and weave on a basketball court doesnât prepare you for navigating your emotions, the anger you store up inside of you for the father who wasnât there, for the other father figures who lied, who beat up your mom, who built a business as a pimp, and then tore it down with drug addiction.
Finding your feet in this community is harrowing to say the least and it seems Jackson struggles with it to this day.
I found this book terribly difficult to read. Much of the gangsta dialect simply defeats me.
But, what writing!