Genealogy Books - Manchild in the Promised Land

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Summary: Will definitely reread...
Comment: This book made such an impact on me when I read it the first time. I was in high school in New
Jersey in the early '70's and had friends in Harlem so I visited often. To read such a vivid
portrait of a young life at that time in New York City felt real for me. Claude Brown's writing
influenced me at an early age. This work is a masterpiece and will stand the test of time.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Hyper-detailed looked into Harlem decades ago
Comment: Brown leaves no stone unturned when it comes to his life in New York. The Howard University graduate
covers the story of the first generation of Southerners (his parents) that left to New York-the
"promised land" where they expected to enjoy equality and prosperity. Instead, they were forced to
deal with overcrowded living spaces and violent ghettos. He paints a picture of his rugged coming of
age with vivid recollections of how he gained his rep as a brawler, the friendships gained and lost
due to drugs and violence, as well as his fight to escape the seemingly hopeless condition that
Harlem was trapped in at the time. After surviving run-ins with the law, brutal fights and the
ravages of drug abuse, one can only hope to have half the mental toughness that Brown had to rise
above his circumstances.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Through the eyes of a ghetto child circa 50's Harlem
Comment:
Claude Brown quite literally puts his life time between the paper's line[just to quote Mobb
Deep] exposing us to the world of Harlem circa the early 1950's. The story definately has universal
appeal to all children that have been spawned from the depths of ghetto despair. What Claude reveals
to the general reader is that even a ghetto child destined to either a prison block or pine box can
rise above and accomplish what they will.

The book functions as a autobigraphical
novel,socilogical story,and psychological observation. All the following can be gleaned from
Claude's Manchild in the Promised Land. Every other view we get of the ghetto comes from
exagerated gangsta rap lyrics or second hand suburban reserchers. Clude provides us with a realistic
depiction from single parent households down to street hustlers that flood the block with heroin.

The Harlem of the 50's-60's definately sounds alot like the inner city
realities of today even at 2007. While Claude was able to escape the trap, you have to wonder how
many ghetto youth today are just simply a victim of their own enviroment. How many Claude Browns are
there in every inner city that don't live to tell their story or do so behind iron bars? The sadness
is that such conditions have only became worse since Manchild in the Promised Land was published in
the 60's.

Before Brown's death he planned a sequel to his previous work
detailing experiances of the 80's generation and how crack cocaine devistated Harlem much like
heroin did in the 50's-70's.

Customer Rating:

Summary: captivating
Comment: this book changed my life in a way... not that i have similar experiences or grew up in that time
because i'm only 24. This was an excellent book all the way but it did a little more for me. This is
one of those books that touched me and will always get praise. My mother was an addict and up until
i read this book i held a grudge because she left me at the age of 5. This book made me understand
the mind of an addict and that she would have probably the best mother in the world if it were not
for the drugs. I understood the control drugs had over people and my mom. The book wasnt just about
drugs but you can overcome and rise from the evils of the world. But for me this book made me
forgive my mother.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Emotional to the tenth power
Comment: Mr. Brown has written a novel that brings home to all that have been raised in a big city how some
have it tougher than themselves. I was raised in the same era in Detroit but it was a different
experience. Hard drugs had not arrived on the white streets yet. Crime was at the fringes of our
society and some youths did, some didn't. At the conclusion of the novel I was sincerely touched as
he thought of his friends that hadn't made it and the the ones that had. We all have surely had the
same thoughts and I sometimes wonder of the few of us that did well in our lives how many of the
others didn't receive the same breaks. They were still our friends, and would be today if we seen
them. They live forever in our minds and hearts and we do hope for the best of a good life, at least
close to what we have had but there are probably more sad storys than not,better we don't know the
pain could be to great. A striking novel and I will recommend to all I know.

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