Rating: 
Summary: Many Have Misunderstood This Novel
Review: First of all the other critics including Mr. Martin who obviously has no idea what it's like growing up Black and male in this country is typical of most white critics in that he immediately takes the defensive position in regards to this novel. Novels by Richard Wright specifically Native Son, Uncle Tom's Children and Black Boy, have been met with the same kind of criticism from whites who simply feel they're being attacked by every little mention of racism. And of course it's currently exceptible to blame the victims and their "baseless ghetto pathology". McCall is simply telling it like it is. There are more Black Men in prison now than in college and of course they bear some measure of responsibility for their condition but if you allow them to tell their story and if you would just listen for just a second, you'll soon discover that their stories sound alike. Not because of some commonality in their excuses, but because they are victims of an institution that supplies them with the means to destroy themselves whether it's through the media or the disprotionate amount of liquor stores, cigarette billboards in Black communities.Is it whinning? Perhaps. It's always an issue of whinning when African Americans are in anyway discontent, or when it's a clear issue of racism. And yes I am a Black Male and I don't hate white people, I just hate it when mostly white people try to pretend that racism is not an issue or a factor. It is.
Rating: 
Summary: Disgust and insight
Review: Like many of the reviewers, I was disgusted by the author's participation in gang rapes, to the point that I refused to buy a new copy of this book and instead found one at my local library's bookfair. After all his teenage experience, he describes visting a house as an adult, in Atlanta, where two men are smoking cocaine with a woman. They tell him they plan to rape her when she is high. He does nothing about this. That said, McCall cannot change what he did in his past and deserves credit for being so honest about his crimes. The way the boys gather in a house to ambush their female classmates could happen in any neighborhood regardless of race or class. If I ever had a daughter, I would want her to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: "Whitey made me do it" --Nathan McCall.
Review: I had to take a shower after finishing this book to wash it off of me. It left me feeling like I'd just been the victim of a severe mugging by criminals who kept declaring, "This is all your fault; after all, you're white," while they stole my wallet. So I decided to read McCall's "riveting" autobiography "Makes me Wanna Holler": The predictable rise of a black upstart, who "made it" to write about being black (sound familiar?). The book begins with McCall and several of his homies giving a white kid a fist-related tooth disorder simply because he was riding down "their" street. McCall vividly and gleefully recounts this moment in his mediocre prose: "He was definitely in the wrong place to be doing the tourist bit. We all took after him. We caught him and knocked him off the bike. He fell to the ground and it was all over. We were on him. We stomped and kicked him." And on and on. With each unprovoked blow, McCall remembers (without contrition), "I felt better. This is for all the times you followed me round in stores. And this is for general principle - just 'cause you white.'" What McCall has now officially established is his bail-out line, his "oppressed black mantra" he'll use everytime he robs, rapes or beats: Whitey made me do it. But the thing is, you see, they really didn't. If white people followed you around in grocery stores, it wasn't out of "racism." The remarkably high crime rates among young inner-city black males legitimizes rational avoidance in a world where people have limited information. If statistics show that one-forth of young blacks in urban areas have criminal records, then as far as pedestrians are concerned, the young blacks they encounter on the street or in a store pose a genuine risk. That isn't "racism," it's called "caution." If a security guard followed you around a grocery store it was probably because he was trying to deter a potential offender. Not "racism" (whatever that means anymore). But McCall begs to differ. McCall likes to take shots at the white-race, who he feels "owe" blacks for the squalid conditions a disproportionate amount of them live in. It's his only excuse and an old one. McCall, brother, whites haven't "forced" blacks not to read "uncool" books or to attend museums, if anything, they've encouraged it. And yes, of course black schools are poorer on average than white schools, but that's primarily because of the need for special and remedial programs and the need for psychologists and social-workers. Public schools now spend far more per capita on black children than on white. Contrary to this evidence, McCall asserts that "whites made him do it." Hey Nathan, isn't it maybe possible that blacks might be, at best "partially" responsible for their living standards? McCall doesn't say. Eventually God grants McCall a second chance which he takes by going back to college. He studies hard "doesn't forget his roots" and gets a job at the Washington Post. He concludes that "alot of whites are bad, but not all whites."
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opening and Profound
Review: I'd had this book in the book case for two or three years. One day, I had a vistor who asked, if I'd read it and I said no. That night, I picked it up and read the first page. That was it. Nathan McCall's story was so intense that I had to finish. It was well written, interesting and diverse. I have young nephews that are struggling in the world to find themselves and identify with this world and often I recommend readings to them. This is definitely one of those recommended readings. An exceptional book!
Rating:
Summary: I failed a class because I refused to read this book
Review: Sometimes you have to stand up for stuff like that. I read the first third of this book, then pages here and there, and I was disgusted. I was digusted the same why as when I read American Psycho years later, but at least in AP's defense, it was FICTION. This book had potential, it could've been a real look at a system that doesn't care about the people that are in it, how he rose above all of this and achieved anyway. But Mr. Mcall seems happy just telling us how it's everybody's fault but our own, and "did I tell you the time I gang-raped this girl?" "Or how it was some girl's fault that she got pregnant, and I'm not taking care of it". This book marked my one and only failed class in college, I refused to finish it. I let my mother read some of it, and after she read about 10 pages, she completely supported my decision. There are much better books about the human condition, don't waste your time here.
Rating:
Summary: Take it for face value
Review: This book is a brave, clear, and honest image of the struggles of growing up in dangerous neighborhoods. Nate McCall will shock and possibly disgust you at times, but he should be praised for his brave look at his own life and misgivings, as well as his accomplishments. I think this is an important read for white folks especially. There is insight into a world that is many times difficult to understand. I have recommended this book to about a dozen people. Some loved it, some hated it, but everyone felt a new sense of understanding. Oh, and if you are one of those people who love to criticize and judge others, you'll love it!
Rating:
Summary: Can't Let it Go
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. Even though I'm still in high school,I had to read this book as an assignment. I could not put it down! I understood where he was coming from because I grew up with my mom and my step-father, also. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: One love, One success
Review: I, like most of the reviewers here, read this book in 1995-96. I lived in this area (Portmouth-Norfolk) most of my life and I was impressed by Nathan's vivid writing. This book, among others, inspired me to release "Masks of the Darkest American Game" as my first book--a book that deals with an African-American youth that escapes the drug game and various sexual relationships to education, corporate success, and love. When Nathan's book is viewed as a product of expression, few have out done him in covering topics that everyone loves to criticise. Some topics are not going to be as easy-going as going to the West Indies and rebounding from a stress filled relationship with the person of your dreams. Nathan expressed his version of a black male's shortcomings for us to talk about it--and we did.
Rating:
Summary: This book makes ME wanna holler
Review: McCall's text encites thought and discussion like no other. Passivity is an impossibility as he gorges the palate of the reader with here-to-fore untasted fodder. I did not "enjoy" reading this book. I did not "curl up" with it. I often "wanted to holler" at McCall just as certain systems make him "want to holler". That seems to be the power of this text; McCall's openness affords the reader the power necessary to criticize not just the entities that surround McCall, but also McCall himself and his interactions with those entities.
Rating:
Summary: Hard hitting stuff and very frank. Brilliant.
Review: I have this book in my "HardToPutDown" book list. Just like I said above, this book is very frank and honest. There are bits that are hard to digest, but like in the real world things are not always rosy. The book portraits McCall's journey through life growing up as "confused kid" till "Adulthood " It does not try to glorify thuggish behaviour or gangsters, but it portraits the all too-familiar road that would be in store for the people who take to that path (he admits he was lucky). It sets the reality from the fiction, and it's also a very motivational book (or deterrent) for the lot of confused Boys/Men out there. So that why this gets a five. It's absolutely brilliant.
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