From Publishers Weekly
McCall's autobiography?a seven-week PW bestseller?tracks his trajectory from the streets of Portsmouth, Va., to prison, rehabilitation and a job at the Washington Post; features a new introduction by the author. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-An autobiography that captures the pain, anger, and fierce determination of a black journalist writing today for the Washington Post. McCall's open and honest description of his life as a boy in a black neighborhood in Portsmouth, VA, his participation in violent criminal acts, and his eventual imprisonment for armed robbery seem somehow to be an expression of the rage of so many young people in America's urban areas. While imprisoned, he worked as inmate librarian and was so moved by Richard Wright's books that he became fascinated by the power of words and decided to become a writer. Though he's made a successful career against great odds, he makes it plain that he doesn't feel completely at ease with his peers in the establishment or those on the streets. His difficult story is told in such an immediate and compelling fashion that young people will be caught up in this strong narrative and gain real insight into McCall's growth and change and, thus, contemporary urban issues.Patricia Noonan, Prince William Public Library, Manassas, VACopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
McCall, who spent his youth in a maelstrom of drugs, gang wars, and violence that culminated in a prison term for armed robbery, convincingly explains the legacy of self-hatred that is destroying so many young black males today. With a humorous touch that helps make such a painful subject palatable, he tells of his long ascent to decency and self-respect that culminated in a job with the Washington Post as a staff reporter. Interestingly, McCall refutes the popular notion that the absence of black fathers has resulted in a generation of predatory young men; instead, he blames a pervading sense of powerlessness and contends that young blacks have few options other than violence. In spite of the audiobook's title, McCall speaks rationally and reads his own material with confidence and self-possession. Recommended for most public libraries.Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
One of the more harrowing passages of McCall's autobiography describes the practice of lulling teenaged girls into "trains," or gang bangs. But almost everything is harrowing in this story of a black man succeeding in a white world--rivalries among gangs, drug use, violent crime; even the efforts of a strong mother and stern stepfather, and the fact that McCall was a good student, were not enough to keep him out of prison. There he became a Christian, then a Muslim, all the while reading voraciously. He learned the printing trade and began to write. At last he returned to college, graduated, and made a steady, if tortuous, ascent to the Washington Post. The latter portions of his book detail his attempts to come to terms with his destructive youth, whether it's through raising his son or looking up the victim of a train. He also comments on the ongoing newsroom wars between white men and white women--still another process, he feels, by which black journalists are excluded from real power. Despite McCall's success--and some celebrations of that success, as in his coverage of and travels with Andrew Young--this is no triumphant memoir. It's frustrated, angry, and worried, as if the story were far from complete. A good companion would be Jill Nelson's account of working at the Post, Volunteer Slavery. John Mort


From Kirkus Reviews
Hopelessness, anguish, and anger seethe through this riveting account, by Washington Post reporter McCall, of one man's roller- coaster rise from the violent, self-annihilating street life of his generation to a respectable position above the fray. Although raised in a solid working-class neighborhood in Portsmouth, Virginia, McCall as a 70's adolescent was not free from the hazards of his and other black communities. His mother and stepfather provided a stable home, but gang-controlled streets brought him into never-ending contact with violence and crime. As fistfights turned into gun battles and sweet-talking into gang- rape, he did his part, stealing an ice-cream truck and, while a college student, shooting an adversary point-blank in the chest. A father at 17, he turned to stickups for cash--until an arrest for armed robbery earned him a stretch in prison. There, he found more positive role models, straightening out enough to gain parole and reenter college in journalism. Jobs were not available for an ex- con, however, until an internship with a local paper turned into real work. An offer from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution followed, and McCall began a new life there with his pregnant wife-to-be; but with racial pressures no less intense in Atlanta and domestic trouble brewing, he began to lose faith, until his honesty paid off and he was hired by the Post--an achievement muted by the knowledge that most of his former friends were dead, dying, or serving time. For any who might think race relations and conditions in African-American communities have been improving since the hard-won civil-rights victories of the 50's and 60's: a devastating, full- bodied reality check. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Not since Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land has there been such an honest and searching look at the perils of growing up a black male in urban America....A compelling depiction of the toll that racism and misguided notions of manhood have taken in the life of one black man--and, by implication, many others."--The San Francisco Chronicle


Review
"Not since Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land has there been such an honest and searching look at the perils of growing up a black male in urban America....A compelling depiction of the toll that racism and misguided notions of manhood have taken in the life of one black man--and, by implication, many others."--The San Francisco Chronicle


Book Description
In this "honest and searching look at the perils of growing up a black male in urban America" (San Francisco Chronicle), Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall tells the story of his passage from the street and the prison yard to the newsroom of one of America's most prestigious papers. "A stirring tale of transformation."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The New Yorker.


From the Publisher
"Not since Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land has there been such an honest and searching look at the perils of growing up a black male in urban America....A compelling depiction of the toll that racism and misguided notions of manhood have taken in the life of one black man--and, by implication, many others."--The San Francisco Chronicle

ANNOTATION

An explosive, true-life Native Son for the 1990s--a black Washington Post reporter who served time recounts his life and brilliantly shows why prison has become a rite of passage for many young black men. McCall's accounts of the hidden prejudice encountered in seemingly liberal, integrated bastions of the newsroom are eye-opening.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this "honest and searching look at the perils of growing up a black male in urban America" (San Francisco Chronicle), Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall tells the story of his passage from the street and the prison yard to the newsroom of one of America's most prestigious papers. "A stirring tale of transformation."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The New Yorker.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

McCall's autobiography-a seven-week PW bestseller-tracks his trajectory from the streets of Portsmouth, Va., to prison, rehabilitation and a job at the Washington Post; features a new introduction by the author. (Feb.)

Library Journal

McCall pulls out all the stops to tell the story of his rise from poverty to success as a journalist at the Washington Post . He uses graphic language, blunt descriptions, honest expression, introspection, and careful observation to describe his early years in Portsmouth, Virgina, as a young black male, the recipient of a 12-year prison sentence for armed robbery, whose life was dangerously out of control. Insensitivity, alienation, racial hatred, drugs (especially crack), guns, rape, robbery, the black American as an endangered species--McCall covers it all in a depressing yet spellbinding documentary of a contemporary American problem so complex as to be almost intractable. The power of this strong narrative transcends McCall's personal struggle; each reader will ``wanna holler'' about the situation.-- Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred

School Library Journal