A review by sarabz
Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas
4.0
This memoir of growing up as a black puerto rican in spanish harlem in the 50's was very well written. He maintains a very approachable style while at the same time achieving a poetry to his prose.
This book made me think about what i'll call "memoirs of the dispossesed" as a genre (anyone know a more legit title for this genre?). Each decade since the 50's seems to have published a few of these. I wonder about how they are marketed and what the audience ends up being and who the authors are writing for and how that has changed over the years. Reviews often focus on the "read this and learn about the seedy underbelly of life among the oppressed" aspect (probably because the reviewers tend to come from priviledge) but there is also the place of validation and self-assessment that is there for people who don't often see themselves reflected realistically in popular literature (especially in the 50's and 60's).
I would love to read an analysis of this. I'll have to do some searching...
This book made me think about what i'll call "memoirs of the dispossesed" as a genre (anyone know a more legit title for this genre?). Each decade since the 50's seems to have published a few of these. I wonder about how they are marketed and what the audience ends up being and who the authors are writing for and how that has changed over the years. Reviews often focus on the "read this and learn about the seedy underbelly of life among the oppressed" aspect (probably because the reviewers tend to come from priviledge) but there is also the place of validation and self-assessment that is there for people who don't often see themselves reflected realistically in popular literature (especially in the 50's and 60's).
I would love to read an analysis of this. I'll have to do some searching...