- ISBN13: 9780679781424
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Thirty years ago Piri Thomas made literary history with this lacerating, lyrical memoir of his coming of age on the streets of Spanish Harlem. Here was the testament of a born outsider: a Puerto Rican in English-speaking America; a dark-skinned morenito in a family that refused to acknowledge its African blood. Here was an unsparing document of Thomas’s plunge into the deadly consolations of drugs, street fighting, and armed robbery–a descent that ended when the tw… More >>
This is a hard book to figure. It’s so simple and poorly written it would seem to be for slow readers or middle schoolers, yet the filthy language makes its questionable for unsophisticated readers.
There is a huge problem with the narration. Mr. Thomas is writing 10 years after the story ends, when he is supposedly a changed and more educated man, but throughout the story reverts to his uneducated gangland Spanish, I guess to keep it real. Throughout, he is incredibly violent, thoughtless, race obsessed, and self absorbed. Yet he offers no apologies to the family members or innocent bystanders he’s hurt. He refers to his illegitimate son, but never gets back to him. Ironically, his family tried to better the situation by moving out to Long Island, but he ran back the world of crime and poverty, supposedly because two white kids said something that hurt his feelings.
Apparently in prison, and afterward, he dabbled in religion to help get himself straight, yet he makes no clear statement of what his new beliefs are. In one troubling scene he counsels with a black Muslim inmate who constantly refers to whites as devils. In the end, he does not convert to Islam, but seems to have no problem with this form of racism. The story ends with him tempted to share heroin with a junky and barely pulling himself away. This hardly shows him to be a changed man, and we have no idea what’s happened since. He constantly refers to Trina, his love interest, but never gives us any feeling for what sets her apart. He mentions she’s pretty, but he’s apparently not motivated by lust, since he bangs other women throughout while saving her for marriage. Despite his constant mention of her, we really know nothing about her.
In the afterword, written in 1997, 68 year Mr. Thomas seems to have learned nothing, blaming the problems of the inner city on racism and the Clinton era welfare reforms. Naturally, there’s no mention of single parent families, welfare dependency, radical Islam, or the Balkanization of the American identity as having anything to do with the continued miseries. Guess he knows politically where his bread gets buttered.
It’s not a bad read, but it has no educational value and does not belong in a school curriculum.
Rating: 2 / 5
I HAVE NOT RECEIVED THIS BOOK THAT I PURCHASED OVER A MONTH AGO SO I WOULD NOT KNOW HOW TO RATE IT.
Rating: 1 / 5
A brutally honest story that is hard to put down. My favorite book of all time.
Rating: 5 / 5
Down These Mean Streets is the story of Piri Thomas’ journey into adulthood. The book is set in Spanish Harlem in the 1940s. The author’s writing style is refreshing and lyrical. He uses some Spanish words here and there(readers might find the glossary in the back of the book helpful), and kicks in a few slang words as well, which makes the dialogs that much more genuine.
Piri struggles through poverty, family troubles, and desperately wanting to belong. He fights with being a dark skinned Puerto Rican during a time when racism was strong, and trying to find his place as neither black nor white. Piri did some not-so-good things in his life, being in a gang, drug addiction, and armed robbery among other things, but throughout it all it is easy to tell that Piri is a good guy at heart.
Overall, this is a captivating story. You might find yourself wondering what you would have done faced with the same situations. I even found myself rooting for Piri at times. This book is still a very accurate depiction of “the hoods” of New York, despite being published for the first time about 40 years ago.
I was sad to have to finish the book, and in the end I felt like I knew Piri. I look forward to re-reading this book over the years. It is truly a classic. Everyone should read it. Anyone can find something in the story that they will be able to relate to.
Rating: 5 / 5
Very good book, very well written and related. I advise also to all the readers that buy the book titled: Tu Alto Precio… Mi Gran Valor, writing by the puertorican writer Miguel Amadeus.
Rating: 5 / 5