Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas

Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas

A modern classic of manhood, marginalization, survival, and transcendence-and a lyrical memoir of coming of age on the streets of Spanish Harlem.

"A report from the guts and heart of a submerged population group ... It claims our attention and emotional response."-The New York Times Book Review

Thirty years ago Piri Thomas made literary history with this lacerating memoir. Here was the testament of a born outsider: a Puerto Rican in English-speaking America; a dark-skinned morenito in a family that refused to acknowledge its African blood. Here was an unsparing document of Thomas's plunge into the deadly consolations of drugs, street fighting, and armed robbery-a descent that ended when the twenty-two-year-old Piri was sent to prison for shooting a cop.

As he recounts the journey that took him from adolescence in El Barrio to a lock-up in Sing Sing to the freedom that comes of self-acceptance, faith, and inner confidence, Piri Thomas gives us a book that is as exultant as it is harrowing and whose every page bears the irrepressible rhythm of its author's voice.

PIRI THOMAS was born in 1928 in New York City's Spanish Harlem to Puerto Rican and Cuban parents. Poverty in the ghetto led to narcotics, adolescent gangs, and a series of illegal acts for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison. He began his rehabilitation there, resolving to utilize his street and jail experience to help young people avoid a life of crime. After that, Thomas gave talks at colleges and universities across the country and wrote several books, including Savior, Savior, Hold My Hand, Seven Long Times, and Tales from El Barrio. At the age of 83, he passed away in 2011.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780679781424
ISBN 10	0679781420
Title	Down These Mean Streets
Author	Piri Thomas
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	1997-11-25
Number of pages	352
Prizes	Winner of New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age.
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.