A review by kevinsmokler
City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success by Nelson George
4.0
Brisk slight read that really comes down to demographics. Are the 70s and 80s in New York fascinating to you? The birth of hip-hop and the mid 90s Back Arts movement. For me, yes yes and more yes. So I loved City Kid.
You may not care. This is a book with a choir it preaches to. I am in that choir. But there are moments--about families, maturity and growing up--that are transcendant, that remind me of Colson Whitehead's "Sag Harbor" which I loved even though I'm not black and from New York. And that's why I'd recommend it, even if you're standing outside this church, wondering about the shouts of joy inside.
You may not care. This is a book with a choir it preaches to. I am in that choir. But there are moments--about families, maturity and growing up--that are transcendant, that remind me of Colson Whitehead's "Sag Harbor" which I loved even though I'm not black and from New York. And that's why I'd recommend it, even if you're standing outside this church, wondering about the shouts of joy inside.