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outcolder's review against another edition
5.0
This book really messed me up, not least because the author is roughly my age and so I had this whole coulda been me thing going on in my head the whole time. I lived in the L.E.S. for most of the 90s, and saw first hand how people of color and the old school freaks were getting squeezed out, sometimes through violence but mostly just economics, and it was heart breaking, because I'd loved the neighborhood how it was and I knew I was part of the reason it was changing. This book adds another wrinkle, or rather more than just a wrinkle, to the injustice. While I was in schools in New Jersey, learning similar rules about race as what Dalton Conley learned on Avenue D, his friends were getting shot, stuck with mandatory sentences and other horrible shit. The comparison is clearest when Conley describes how he ended up on the pro-disco side at his integrated middle school. The clothes, the issue itself, even the confusion about what race "Another One Bites the Dust" Queen belonged to, all had their parallels in my middle school.
Another personal level for me was how strongly I identified with his parents, an artist and a writer -- The father especially, who genuinely prefers Avenue D to places like Westbeth.
It's not a total downer though, there is some humor, and the reader will learn a few choice old school LES snaps (your momma is so poor, she lives on Avenue E) and of course Dalton himself survives albeit with OCD.
If you've ever been white in the L.E.S., you should definitely read this, but I would really recommend it to anyone who is still troubled by their first grammar school lessons in american racism.
Another personal level for me was how strongly I identified with his parents, an artist and a writer -- The father especially, who genuinely prefers Avenue D to places like Westbeth.
It's not a total downer though, there is some humor, and the reader will learn a few choice old school LES snaps (your momma is so poor, she lives on Avenue E) and of course Dalton himself survives albeit with OCD.
If you've ever been white in the L.E.S., you should definitely read this, but I would really recommend it to anyone who is still troubled by their first grammar school lessons in american racism.
horfhorfhorf's review against another edition
3.0
I'm torn about this book. How can a memoir centering around race, class and privilege be little more than mental thumbtwiddling?
jwsg's review against another edition
5.0
I think this was probably the book that got me started browsing through the sociology section of bookshops for reading materials. Melissa raved so much about the book that I had to purchase a copy from Barnes and Noble. A unique look at class in America from Conley, who grew up as the white kid (Honky) in a black neighbourhood. Whose hippie parents chose to be poor (albeit with the security that their own wealthy parents would provide support if required, for instance, sponsoring their grandson's education).
emilybryk's review against another edition
2.0
at first, I kind of worried this was black people love us, the book.
that said, I've changed my mind. it's heartfelt, certainly, but just not . . . anything new or surprising or unusually insightful.
that said, I've changed my mind. it's heartfelt, certainly, but just not . . . anything new or surprising or unusually insightful.
avajeann33's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
3.75
margaretefg's review against another edition
5.0
whoa! what a fabulous memoir...AND he gives all these insights into race and class in America, while telling the hilariously narrated story of his life. Even my students enjoy it.
allomancersam's review against another edition
2.0
Another school book. Asks some interesting questions but falls short when trying to provide answers. Overall an interesting read.
twitchyredpen's review against another edition
2.0
Things happen. The things are sequential, and important, but they don't build up to anything other than the eventual moving to Whiteville and further-eventual writing this book.
Maybe the problem is I'm bad about memoirs. Maybe the problem is that I was a sociology major so none of this is all that surprising.
I'd recommend it to someone who won't be surprised but has trouble elucidating the issue, or to someone who would be surprised and would have something to think about (instead of going straight to disbelief), but past that... ehh. It was never within DNF range, but it never caught my interest either.
Maybe the problem is I'm bad about memoirs. Maybe the problem is that I was a sociology major so none of this is all that surprising.
I'd recommend it to someone who won't be surprised but has trouble elucidating the issue, or to someone who would be surprised and would have something to think about (instead of going straight to disbelief), but past that... ehh. It was never within DNF range, but it never caught my interest either.