Chasing America: Notes from a Rock 'n' Soul Integrationist

by Dennis Watlington

"And I thought I knew this crazy-brave black boy who bolted out of a Harlem ghetto into a white prep school and bobbed and weaved his way across the treacherous divide between black and white America. But Dennis Watlington's life story is even more astonishing than I knew. He emerges a no-jive black integrationist who is proud of the slave ancestry that makes him a solid American foreperson." -Gail Sheehy, bestselling author of Passages and Understanding Men's Passages
Chasing America is a rollercoaster ride through promise and poverty, affirmative action and addiction, and a powerful story that captures a life and an era that is seminally American.
Born in Harlem in 1952, Dennis developed a heroin habit at the age of 14, kicked it, and received a scholarship to the Hotchkiss School where he was elected president of his class. He went on to NYU, became involved in film and theater (he had a small role in The Deerhunter and gave Bruce Willis his start in a play called Bullpen ), got addicted to crack, kicked that, and became an Emmy winning television writer.
Chasing America shows us the best and worst that America offers to a Black man--from the Jim Crow South to boarding school life in New England to backstage at the Fillmore East to a holding cell in Bellevue Hospital.
Part Ellison, part Exley, Chasing America is an amazing story.

Genres: Memoir

384 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2005

Reviews

[Robert Marovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my research into the Voices of East Harlem professional choir. The book exceeded my expectations in terms of the amazing story it told. The three-star rating has more to do with the fact that there are quite a few typos and editing errors that should have been corrected prior to publication. Otherwise, it is a compelling-as-hell story - the fact that Dennis Watlington not only survived but thrived after all he'd been through is a testament to the undying spirit of humanity.

[A Battleground · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts of this book are absolutely wonderful. Other parts are bogged down by Watlington's incessant name-dropping and unnecessary explanations (we all know that Melanie Griffith was in Working Girl, and Bruce Willis was in Die Hard). The text is littered with these and various misspellings that somehow got by his editor. However, Watlington does have a way with prose. I would love to see a novel by him.

[Alix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seriously couldn't put this book down once I started reading it. Dennis is an absolutely amazing author, he writes in such a way that you as the reader can actually imagine yourself in the book and he makes you feel everything that he states that his characters are feeling.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

check this book out Connie, I think you will enjoy it........