Read this book when I was like 16, 1972!
What a different story now that I'm 60! I reread it because of what is going on with race relations right now. Claude Brown was quite a hero to that 16 year old hippie girl!

An autobiographical account of the life of a young black man growing up in Harlem in the 1940s, the book chronicles his shockingly early introduction into a crime-filled life (by the age of nine (!) he was a seasoned thief and gang member), through his stints in institutions such as Eleanor Roosevelt's Wiltwyck, and his amazing efforts to leave behind that life to make a better one for himself. I can't say that I liked it - this isn't a book that you enjoy reading. It's hard and harsh and bleak. But it's also incredibly well-written and inspiring, and still an important read today; I learned so much about what life was like for kids growing up in Harlem at that time, a world that, as a white farm-raised girl from the Midwest in the 80's, I knew nothing about. So I'm grateful for this narrative and humbled by Brown's ability to rise up out of his beginnings and become the impressive scholar and writer he was. Be warned, though: Brown pulls no punches in his no-nonsense way of detailing scenes of violence, drug use, and even gang rape. (I nearly put it down several times, but decided to push on because I thought it overall an important story to finish.)

Claude Brown's account of his early life in Harlem and, later on, his journey leaving that behind is an impactful read that really sorted a lot of reasoning out in my head. From an outsider's perspective, some of the problems you hear certain neighborhoods dealing with just seem inhuman, but post-Manchild, I feel like I can start to be understanding. This experience definitely made me interested in reading more perspectives on growing up in rough neighborhoods, whether that be Harlem or somewhere else.

Would recommend to nearly everyone. It's not a hard read, but it deals with some heavy topics.

CONTENT WARNINGS:
- rape
- racism
- lots of violence
- swearing
- sexism
- lots of drug usage (plus OD)
- sex
- police violence
and honestly there's probably more, too, because this book was craaaaazy.

A harrowing autobiography about growing up in Harlem in the late 1950s. I had read this book back when I was in high school (recommended to me by my older brother) and it's amazing reading it now seeing how much of the book I couldn't possibly understand. It was also interesting reading about the gentrification of Harlem back then.