nglofile's review against another edition
2.0
audiobook note: Read by the author, and it would have been so much better if it hadn't been. In theory there is something to be added by having a writer be the voice of his own story, but recorded narration is an entirely different discipline. When the intonations are nasal and barely inflected, and the rhythms are without variation, the narrative itself is done a disservice. Leave it to the professionals, Jack.
annebennett1957's review against another edition
3.0
My review: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/bloggers-dilemma.html
boob's review against another edition
4.0
This book gives you a lot of perspective as it comes from someone that lived a wildly different life than me. The author went to jail for drug smuggling and this book tells the story of his life. It was very interesting to be able to poke around the mind of someone other than myself.
sc104906's review against another edition
3.0
This is the story of Jack Gantos's life, or rather his young adult life. Gantos wants to attend college, but first he must earn enough money to go. He gets caught up in a drug dealing world and eventually serves time in prison because of this. It is an interesting insight into this author's life.
The story does take place during the 1970's and various historical references and events are touched on.
The story does take place during the 1970's and various historical references and events are touched on.
jbrown_leo's review against another edition
4.0
I came across this book in my son’s school library...mind you, he’s in 5th grade. I started reading it to see if it was appropriate for him to read (it was definitely not) and ended up enjoying it myself. It was a good story I just felt it ended very abruptly. I’m not sure how quickly he wrote this after leaving prison but I expected a little more about his life after prison and it just wasn’t there. Glad I read it tho, and I’m REALLY glad my 10 year old did not
emilyrose72's review against another edition
1.0
This is the story of teenage Jack Gantos in 1971. He's a teenager aspiring to be a novelist, and tries to get himself out of his current situation to an opportunity to go to school. The opportunity arises when he agrees to be a part of shipping one ton of drugs to New York for $10,000. The story is of his experience and how he got caught. I did not enjoy the book because I found it uninspiring and promoting the wrong values. Gantos never expresses regret for being apart of the drugs, just for getting caught. He does turn his life around, so it has a happy ending, but I didn't find the story compelling or worth my time.
joshhansonhorror's review against another edition
3.0
Well written and painfully honest, the final act, which should be the important one if this is meant to be the story of redemption it sells itself to be. I guess I wanted the lesson to have a lot more to do with how to turn a life around, especially through writing, than about the scariness of prison life.
iffer's review against another edition
3.0
This is a good mini-memoir, and, even though Gantos is a children's author, he doesn't sugar coat his criminal past or experiences on prison in order to tie the book up with a neat "lesson." I'm glad that Gantos put his voice out there. Although Gantos managed to turn his life around, this isn't a ringing endorsement of the US justice system. It recounts Gantos's personal experiences while also showing us that the US criminal justice system is too off broken and breaks the humans it's supposed to be remediating.