Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Monster: The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member--#67 finished

A powerful memoir about a young kid that gets involved in a gang around age 11 and how he grows in the gang and the crimes he commits and the juvenile sentences and eventually prisons he goes to for this.  A true story that ends with what sounds like him figuring out life to a degree and wanting to be a father to his children and a husband to his wife.  The epilogue mentions that he beat up a crack dealer because he wouldn't leave the neighborhood and for this reason he was back in jail.  Reading on wikipedia it sounds like he has had a few more arrests and more jail time and is in jail now.  I understand the need for incarceration but given how tough his life was growing up, I really hope he can remain out of prison and living a lawful life yet.  He has written a few more books but I don't think I will look into them but this was a powerful book that really gives a level of understanding what the gang life was like back at end of '70s and into the '80s pretty much right before the crack epidemic came along.

I have posted it on PBS there were already 5 copies in system so probably won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

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