Manchild in the Promised Land
by Claude Brown
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Book Summary Information
Author: Claude BrownEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-06-03
ISBN: 0684864185
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Touchstone
Book Reviews of Manchild in the Promised Land
Book Review: Takes you into a different, but very real American world.
Summary: 5 Stars
I highly recommend this book. It tells the story of the post World War II Black American urban experience through the eyes of a very smart, confident Black 8 year old. In many ways this book reminds me of Mark Twain's Huck Finn. In both books, very clever, independent young American boys take the world as it is and they push to assert themselves and they are man child's with a great sense of adventure.
While other reviewers have noted the harsh, violent incidents of the book, I felt it was more balanced. Claude Brown's New York City of the 1940s and 1950s was certainly a rough place, especially when hard drugs were coming in, but it was also tough and loving in a good way. Claude Brown had tough teachers in his public school that cared about him and there was also a truant officer that would chase after Claude and the other boys who were skipping school. This White truant officer was one of my favorite characters in the book and Claude took great interest in him as a very important enemy. Claude cautioned the other boys who wanted to skip not to try to outrun this White truant officer - because he had great foot-speed (got to admire a White guy with the courage to out run and chase down and catch Black boys in their own Harlem neighborhood :-)
I also enjoyed seeing the different Black cultural mix in Harlem from Blacks in the rural South to street savvy urban Blacks. Claude Brown's father isn't in to politics or hustling, he came to the city for economic opportunities and generally respects the social order of police, teachers, job bosses. Claude's father used to have to beat little Claude to get him to go to school, then later in life Claude wants to go to do graduate school work instead of taking down a steady paying job. This just doesn't fit with the country values of Claude's father.
In any event, this book takes you into the heart and soul of Black urban America and it isn't propaganda - it shows Black American culture with all of it's dirty laundry. The ghetto can be a rough place, we need good, strong tough people to clean up these places and make them safe, good places for smart, adventuresome boys like Claude or a Huck Finn.
Summary of Manchild in the Promised Land
"Manchild in the Promised Land" is indeed one of the most remarkable autobiographies of our time. This thinly fictionalized account of Claude Brown's childhood as a hardened, streetwise criminal trying to survive the toughest streets of Harlem has been heralded as the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the Northern ghettos of the 1940s and 1950s. When the book was first published in 1965, it was praised for its realistic portrayal of Harlem -- the children, young people, hardworking parents; the hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and numbers runners; the police; the violence, sex, and humor. The book continues to resonate generations later, not only because of its fierce and dignified anger, not only because the struggles of urban youth are as deeply felt today as they were in Brown's time, but also because the book is affirmative and inspiring. Here is the story about the one who "made it," the boy who kept landing on his feet and became a man.African-American & Black Books
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