Rating: 
Summary: racist book by a lowlife loser
Review: it's amazing (and a testament to mistaken guilt in this 'free speech' (at least in one direction) country) that something like this could get published. this racist piece of trash (mccall) makes all blacks look bad. it's too bad that with >75% of all black kids growing up in single parent 'families' they will probably never be told that they have a duty as a human being to be responsible for their actions. where are you, dr. king???? your beauty and power will never be forgotten...
Rating: 
Summary: Reality Check
Review: This book was a shocking depiction of the plight of the black male in America. The legacy of slavery has played a drastic effect on the history of this country. The school system has helped to perpetuate stereotypes and this book touches on all facets. There is no excuse for the author's behavior as a youth, but I can relate to the wondering eyes as you enter a department store, the self-hating blacks, and the "I think I'm smarter than you because your black"--whites. It can be frustrating, but one has to turn that anger into a positive outcome, and always remember that it's not everybody. Minorities tend to have to code-switch; self-haters feel you've changed, and you're still black to whites. His chronicles of his childhood behavior confirm for me that people rebell, if they have embodied a nihilistic attitude. So I condemn Nate for his youth behavior, and applaud Nathan for making a change.
Rating:
Summary: This is not a book, it is a piece of garbage
Review: This waste of money shows how far our western culture has gone down the drain. I know that America has freedom of speech to a degree that Europe does not allow. Yet this is not freedom of speech, it is an Orwellian nightmare.
A rapist and full time criminal gets the oportunity to blame honset decent white people for horrific crimes he has comitted.I wonder whether white Americans have self respect to allow the publication of this obsecenety.
What kind of logic is it to blame victims for getting gang raped ? It is just a simple strategy to deny any responsibility. The cheapest excuse criminals have come up with since there was crime in thsi world. And "books" like this one finally destroy any sence for true justice and decency. Medieval way of torture and death would be a proper punishment for McCall.
Rating:
Summary: REAL
Review: One afternoon, I noticed this book in my cousin's closet. Intrigued by the book description, I asked him to let me borrow it. Gratefully, he permitted without any objection. This book tells the truth and only the truth. He doesn't apologize for his actions nor does he make any excuses for them. It refreshes me to see a criminal become a journalist of high stature.
Rating: 
Summary: Now I get it
Review: I very much enjoyed reading this book. It opened my eyes to a lot of things I thought I understood but in reality did not. I found at times that Mr. McCall was making excuses and blaming the white establishment for the horrifying things he did, but I also realized he was telling his life story as it was and it was not intended to be a public apology. Although I do hope one day he apologizes to the women he raped and the children he abandoned. I also hope he's one day able to thank his stepfather and his mother for their support. I challenge all those who gave this book a negative review to ask and answer honestly this question: If you died and had a choice of your reincarnation, would you choose to come back as a black man? Me either.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books you'll read in any year
Review: The first thing to say about this is that it is an incredibly powerful book. The subtitle of the book is "A Young Black Man in America", so we know that this memoir is going to deal with race and the experience of growing up as a black man in America. We see prejudice, anger, hate, disappointment, racism, crime, drugs, murder, prison, and how Nathan McCall acts and reacts towards the white establishment in his personal and professional life. No matter what the ethnicity of the reader, this is a fascinating book. Nathan McCall begins with his childhood and takes the story up through the writing of the book when he is working as a reporter for the Washington Post. It is painful and difficult story as McCall begins revealing his experiences. McCall led a very interesting life and his perspective on it is worth the price of admission. McCall traces his childhood when he was a strong student and not that popular and as he gained popularity and friends, his focus was more on the social aspects of school and the neighborhood than it was on education. He describes a little bit of the anger black men felt at the time (this would be in the 60's) and the behaviors of his friends towards the few whites that they saw. McCall and his friends started skipping school and getting into fights and the more they fought, the more respect they gained the neighborhood. While we know from the fact that McCall writes for the Washington Post that he turned out alright, this is a very bad section of the book for McCall. He is getting deeper and deeper into street violence and drugs, and sex (there are a couple of horrible things written about sex in the early section of the book). We know that racism has got him down, but this section was more the neighborhood interaction than the later chapters dealing with prejudice. It is difficult to remain sympathetic to McCall during this time. As he grows older, he is eventually sent to prison for three years for Armed Robbery (there is a very good description of the difference of race as related to crime: when McCall shot and nearly killed a black man, he was given a month long prison sentence of which he served 8 days. When he only robbed a white man at gunpoint, he was given 3 years). The prison section is where race really starts coming into play in McCall's (and other black men) interactions and observations. Racism really comes into play when McCall is out of prison and is striving to improve his life and not fall back into crime. His prison record is a factor and his being black affects his job prospects and how people act towards him. McCall shows us how there is a more subtle form of prejudice than blatant racism when he becomes a working man at a newspaper. The bottom line is that this is an incredibly well written book and should be essential reading for any high school or college aged student. It gives an intelligent and powerful look at race and one of the many experiences of a black man growing up in America. Without question this is one of the best books I have read this year (any year) and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: While I applaud Nathan McCall for turning his life around, I couldn't help but notice that much of the horror left in the wake of his life of crime was only minimally addressed, if at all, in this book. In many cases today, someone who had committed the number and nature of crimes this man admits to would end up with a whole lot more prison time than his brief three-year stint. Participating in gang rape alone, which he was not charged with, could easily have landed him a heck of a lot more time behind bars, as it well should. More importantly, while he moves on to make something of his life, he seems to look back with superficial regret about his "mistakes" in denying/ignoring his children, ruining the lives of young black women by participating in their defilement, and becoming the type of man he says he despises, but seems irresistably drawn to become. It seems at some point that he understands he has "past business" to take care of, but it sure took him long enough - while someone else, namely women, were taking care of all the responsibility themselves. I bet they wished they could have taken their time and decided what to do. I can't help but think that the white man (or woman, or establishment) cannot possibly be responsible for all the problems and pain Nathan McCall created for himself. Everyone has struggles of one sort or another, and it is all about the choices people make to overcome those struggles, not perceived slights to be used as excuses. I am a 32 year old Irish-American woman and I have had struggles aplenty, but I haven't asked anyone else to take responsibility for my choices, which it seems Mr. McCall has. Another issue of interest to me in this book is the role of Islam. It seems like many men find Islam in prison, but don't hold themselves to it's most important tenets, specifically regarding relations between men and women, but many other issues as well. Mr. McCall admits to cohabitating with a woman, as well as cheating on her, which is all most un-Islamic. Religion is not intended as a convenience, and I am glad that Mr. McCall seemed to eventually acknowledge the hyposcrisy of his behavior. This book was an interesting read, but came to some disturbing conclusions. I hope that Nathan McCall is not still so bitter a man. I also hope that Mr. McCall and others like him will one day come to know that there are a whole lot of people of every ethnicity who don't mean anyone any harm no matter what color they are, where they come from, or where and if they go to church. Maybe being a little more open to people would help him and others to see that we are all out here, one day at a time, trying to make a life for ourselves and our families.
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: really opened my eyes to many things that i had known of but not about.
Rating:
Summary: The Voice of Black Men
Review: I honestly have to disagree with dude above. I was so intrigued reading this book. Man i felt like i was missin out on so much when i was readin. Every page i turned i was destined to gain knowledge. I can feel him on a lot of topics. I neva even thought about the white mainstream until i started reading the book. I neva knew how hard it was for him as a black man not to give into the stream. I'm also proud of him. It seem as if black men need to be confined in some space for them notice the world and their life around them. I was proud to see a brother come out the prison with knowledge and an ego and he was legit with it. All that knowledge and spiritual finding helped him in the long run. I really appreciate Nathan for laying down a book like this well basically his life. I feel every black man, young or old need to read this book. You won't appreciate it if you can't relate so don't hate.
Rating:
Summary: What's the Fuss About?
Review: Several people complain that the author uses racism as an excuse and never takes responsibility for his own actions; to those people: READ THE BOOK AGAIN. All through this memoir he admits his mistakes. For those who say that his excuses are lame because he came from a two parent home and had no need to do the things he did need to get out a little more. It doesn't matter whether you have one parent or 10 parents at home, the streets will confront you. Whether you like Nate McCall or not, you have to admit that he makes several good points. My favorite being the way African-American history is taught in schools. He raises the point that whites are only portrayed as victorious in history meanwhile blacks are taught only about MLK,jr and a few other blacks that is wrapped up in a few paragraphs in the history book. This gives support to his logic that blacks are taught to feel inferior to whites from day one. I like when he says that in order for blacks to know where they are going they have to know where they've been-which solidifies the need to accurately know our history. Bottom line: you need to pick this book up-it gave me the same type of feeling I had after watching ROOTS.
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