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Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family
An electrifying, dazzlingly written reckoning and an essential addition to the national conversation about race and class, Survival Math takes its name from the calculations award-winning author Mitchell S. Jackson made to survive the Portland, Oregon, of his youth. This dynamic book explores gangs and guns, near-death experiences, sex work, masculinity, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of addiction—all framed within the experience of Jackson, his family, and his community.
Lauded for its breathtaking pace, its tender portrayals, its stark candor, and its luminous style, Survival Math reveals on every page the searching intellect and originality of its author. The primary narrative, focused on understanding the antecedents of Jackson’s family’s experiences, is complemented by poems composed from historical American documents as well as survivor files, which feature photographs and riveting short narratives of several of Jackson’s male relatives. The sum of Survival Math’s parts is a highly original whole, one that reflects on the exigencies--over generations--that have shaped the lives of so many disenfranchised Americans. As essential as it is beautiful, as real as it is artful, Mitchell S. Jackson’s nonfiction debut is a singular achievement, not to be missed.
Lauded for its breathtaking pace, its tender portrayals, its stark candor, and its luminous style, Survival Math reveals on every page the searching intellect and originality of its author. The primary narrative, focused on understanding the antecedents of Jackson’s family’s experiences, is complemented by poems composed from historical American documents as well as survivor files, which feature photographs and riveting short narratives of several of Jackson’s male relatives. The sum of Survival Math’s parts is a highly original whole, one that reflects on the exigencies--over generations--that have shaped the lives of so many disenfranchised Americans. As essential as it is beautiful, as real as it is artful, Mitchell S. Jackson’s nonfiction debut is a singular achievement, not to be missed.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2019
246 people are currently reading
9024 people want to read
About the author
Mitchell S. Jackson
8 books246 followersMitchell S. Jackson’s debut novel The Residue Years received wide critical praise. Jackson is the winner of a Whiting Award. His novel also won The Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence and was a finalist for The Center for Fiction Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, the PEN / Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, and the Hurston / Wright Legacy Award. Jackson’s honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, PEN America, TED, NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts), and The Center for Fiction. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Paris Review, The Guardian, Tin House, and elsewhere. His nonfiction book Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family is forthcoming from Scribner. Jackson is a Clinical Associate Professor of writing in the Liberal Studies at New York University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 227 reviews
October 3, 2020
The great thing about reading is that you are given the closest thing possible to a full picture of humanity. We are exposed to humanity and all of its complications, contradictions, complexities, inventions, reinventions, & layers.
Without a book's help humans often come across this same picture of humanity through their families. The blood, whom for better or worse, you are connected to without any say.
Survival Math by Mitchell Jackson is a work of nonfiction—which could be defined as memoir, Autobiography, history, philosophy, manifesto, self-help & more— that gives you an honest, unflinching, & illuminating picture of his family which navigated the tough landscape of Northeast Portland. The Blackest part of the Whitest City in the United States. A Blackest part that unfortunately isn't as Black anymore.
This provocative work of nonfiction does things that you wouldn't expect a memoir or autobiography to do. Although Mitchell Jackson is this book's author he gives voice to many others. For starters, go back up to this book's cover image, there are 16 men there who are all members of Jackson's family. They all get a voice in second person narratives that are dispersed throughout this book called Survivor Files. Where they give the reader a recap of the toughest thing they survived.
Jackson also does the unheard of & takes on his flaws head on. A big one being his history of womanizing & he gives 5 of the women he wronged an opportunity to tell their version of events. Giving this work of nonfiction relation to Jay-Z's Grammy nominated 4:44 album from 2017.
Jackson shows us his flaws &/or obstacles as well as those of his family & how they've either overcome them or coped with them. Whether its more womanizing, pimping, drug addiction, poverty, gang-related activity, gun violence, and more.
Even with this picture he doesn't ask the reader for their pity, but he effectively earns the reader's understanding through historical connections that proceed or even created such behaviors, events, or tasks his family had to take on.
Jackson's intelligence, inquisition, & curiosity makes Survival Math a work with all the correct calculations & equations.
------------------------------------------------
This is a book I'd recommend especially to any Black men in your life although we know better than to limit your recommendations to just them. Recommend it to anyone you know who has immense joy for reading & writing because Jackson truly put on a show with this.
There is so much ground that Jackson covers & the way he connects his family to all kinds of historical figures & events is flawless. A true game-changer of a book for me. One that is meant to be read more than once & probably more than twice. I look forward to reading it more than twice & maybe each time I will focus on different themes like the concept of Hustle, Fast Ten Slow Twenty, Blood Banks, How Drug Addictions are like Toxic Marriages.
Who knows? Either way I hope you'll consider giving this incredible book a chance.
Without a book's help humans often come across this same picture of humanity through their families. The blood, whom for better or worse, you are connected to without any say.
Survival Math by Mitchell Jackson is a work of nonfiction—which could be defined as memoir, Autobiography, history, philosophy, manifesto, self-help & more— that gives you an honest, unflinching, & illuminating picture of his family which navigated the tough landscape of Northeast Portland. The Blackest part of the Whitest City in the United States. A Blackest part that unfortunately isn't as Black anymore.
This provocative work of nonfiction does things that you wouldn't expect a memoir or autobiography to do. Although Mitchell Jackson is this book's author he gives voice to many others. For starters, go back up to this book's cover image, there are 16 men there who are all members of Jackson's family. They all get a voice in second person narratives that are dispersed throughout this book called Survivor Files. Where they give the reader a recap of the toughest thing they survived.
Jackson also does the unheard of & takes on his flaws head on. A big one being his history of womanizing & he gives 5 of the women he wronged an opportunity to tell their version of events. Giving this work of nonfiction relation to Jay-Z's Grammy nominated 4:44 album from 2017.
Jackson shows us his flaws &/or obstacles as well as those of his family & how they've either overcome them or coped with them. Whether its more womanizing, pimping, drug addiction, poverty, gang-related activity, gun violence, and more.
Even with this picture he doesn't ask the reader for their pity, but he effectively earns the reader's understanding through historical connections that proceed or even created such behaviors, events, or tasks his family had to take on.
Jackson's intelligence, inquisition, & curiosity makes Survival Math a work with all the correct calculations & equations.
------------------------------------------------
This is a book I'd recommend especially to any Black men in your life although we know better than to limit your recommendations to just them. Recommend it to anyone you know who has immense joy for reading & writing because Jackson truly put on a show with this.
There is so much ground that Jackson covers & the way he connects his family to all kinds of historical figures & events is flawless. A true game-changer of a book for me. One that is meant to be read more than once & probably more than twice. I look forward to reading it more than twice & maybe each time I will focus on different themes like the concept of Hustle, Fast Ten Slow Twenty, Blood Banks, How Drug Addictions are like Toxic Marriages.
Who knows? Either way I hope you'll consider giving this incredible book a chance.
July 15, 2020
Mitchell Jackson’s writing talent is evident in Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family. I am struggling with how to clearly express my thoughts on this book and have read other reviews that capture it well: Survival Math switches frequently between casual and more formal tones with a solid dose of “stream of consciousness” style, which is not one I knowingly opt into reading.
I appreciate the difficult environment Jackson grew up in and made effort to overcome, yet struggled to feel for him in parts of the book, most notably in his treatment toward (according to him) the plethora of women he engaged with. I hoped to like this more than I actually did — I found the various survivor files to be the most impactful parts.
I appreciate the difficult environment Jackson grew up in and made effort to overcome, yet struggled to feel for him in parts of the book, most notably in his treatment toward (according to him) the plethora of women he engaged with. I hoped to like this more than I actually did — I found the various survivor files to be the most impactful parts.
January 18, 2019
Wow wow wow. January isn’t even over and I’ve already found one of my top reads of 2019. Thank you Scribner for gifting me a free copy of Survival Math. It will be out in March.
I have so much to say about this book, but I don’t even think I can do it justice. I was gripped by every single word. Jackson accounts his life growing up in Portland, Oregon; a life characterized by poverty, drugs, violence, and struggle. The title of the book comes from the calculations Jackson had to make to survive his circumstances. Throughout the book, Jackson has included "Survival Files" - short accounts of the lives of men in his family and what they had to do to survive as well.
Survival Math is intimate and interrogating of the choices both Jackson and his family members had to make to survive. These are stories not meant for us to judge, we are to listen, and hopefully, to learn. What makes Jackson’s examination of these topics so impactful is the combination of candor and voice. Many writers have unique voices, but Jackson’s is a blend of intellectuality and the suaveness he learned from the hustlers that marked his life in Portland; an observation he himself points out. As for candor, Jackson observes his own role in the sins of his community - his examination of how he has hurt women is especially compelling. There is nothing "holier than thou" about Jackson’s writing - he may have survived his circumstances but he is cognizant of the fact that his circumstances made him the writer he is today.
Tears fell at different points while reading this. I can’t really pinpoint the exact emotion I was feeling that produced this response from me - it wasn’t pity or sadness - it was just something about Jackson’s writing that seeped into me and affected me.
There’s a lesson here in these pages that Jackson makes clear to readers, that I hope you too will realize when you read this book - we have the ability to help others reframe how they see themselves, what they see in their futures, what they believe is attainable. Any writer who can make you recognize that is a damn good writer to me.
I have so much to say about this book, but I don’t even think I can do it justice. I was gripped by every single word. Jackson accounts his life growing up in Portland, Oregon; a life characterized by poverty, drugs, violence, and struggle. The title of the book comes from the calculations Jackson had to make to survive his circumstances. Throughout the book, Jackson has included "Survival Files" - short accounts of the lives of men in his family and what they had to do to survive as well.
Survival Math is intimate and interrogating of the choices both Jackson and his family members had to make to survive. These are stories not meant for us to judge, we are to listen, and hopefully, to learn. What makes Jackson’s examination of these topics so impactful is the combination of candor and voice. Many writers have unique voices, but Jackson’s is a blend of intellectuality and the suaveness he learned from the hustlers that marked his life in Portland; an observation he himself points out. As for candor, Jackson observes his own role in the sins of his community - his examination of how he has hurt women is especially compelling. There is nothing "holier than thou" about Jackson’s writing - he may have survived his circumstances but he is cognizant of the fact that his circumstances made him the writer he is today.
Tears fell at different points while reading this. I can’t really pinpoint the exact emotion I was feeling that produced this response from me - it wasn’t pity or sadness - it was just something about Jackson’s writing that seeped into me and affected me.
There’s a lesson here in these pages that Jackson makes clear to readers, that I hope you too will realize when you read this book - we have the ability to help others reframe how they see themselves, what they see in their futures, what they believe is attainable. Any writer who can make you recognize that is a damn good writer to me.
June 13, 2019
Thoughts soon.
March 4, 2019
My nonfiction reads have been top notch so far this year!
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell S. Jackson is a phenomenal book/ experience for me the reader. Telling his story in his unique writing style, Jackson made me feel like he was having a conversation with over coffee. His story of growing up Portland, Oregon and the struggles as a black man its not new coming from a black woman who’s had her share of growing in a predominately white area, but it’s how he told his story just sucked me into this book. Centering not only his struggles but also the generations of his families was a genius. Violence, prison, and drugs all of this played a big part of who he was and where he’s going. I personally have never been to Portland, Oregon, so reading what life was like for him really intrigued me. Jackson is an exceptional writer and this book is truly phenomenal. I will read any book that Jackson puts out in the Future. Thank you Netgalley & @scribnerbooks for the e-copy of this book.
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell S. Jackson is a phenomenal book/ experience for me the reader. Telling his story in his unique writing style, Jackson made me feel like he was having a conversation with over coffee. His story of growing up Portland, Oregon and the struggles as a black man its not new coming from a black woman who’s had her share of growing in a predominately white area, but it’s how he told his story just sucked me into this book. Centering not only his struggles but also the generations of his families was a genius. Violence, prison, and drugs all of this played a big part of who he was and where he’s going. I personally have never been to Portland, Oregon, so reading what life was like for him really intrigued me. Jackson is an exceptional writer and this book is truly phenomenal. I will read any book that Jackson puts out in the Future. Thank you Netgalley & @scribnerbooks for the e-copy of this book.
March 6, 2019
3.5⭐ rounded up
This is a tough review to write. While I loved Jackson's storytelling and honesty, I really struggled with the format of this book. I enjoyed the memoir aspects, and I think I expected this to be a full memoir. However, a lot of this book had an academic tone (which is absolutely perfect for the right reader), and some parts with a lot of historical or mythological background made me feel like I was in school. Everything felt disconnected for me since there were so many different tones in this book. I had a hard time staying focused.
I think I would have had a better time with the book if it would have been a straight memoir. I was interested in hearing more of Jackson's story, and I appreciate the parts that he shared with us. The Survivor Files sections were my favorite part. They were so personal, and I liked the way that the stories were told.
My review might not be very helpful. I highly recommend checking out some of the other reviews - it seems like a lot of other people had an easier time reading this one than I did. Thank you so much to Scribner for sending me a copy of Survival Math to review.
This is a tough review to write. While I loved Jackson's storytelling and honesty, I really struggled with the format of this book. I enjoyed the memoir aspects, and I think I expected this to be a full memoir. However, a lot of this book had an academic tone (which is absolutely perfect for the right reader), and some parts with a lot of historical or mythological background made me feel like I was in school. Everything felt disconnected for me since there were so many different tones in this book. I had a hard time staying focused.
I think I would have had a better time with the book if it would have been a straight memoir. I was interested in hearing more of Jackson's story, and I appreciate the parts that he shared with us. The Survivor Files sections were my favorite part. They were so personal, and I liked the way that the stories were told.
My review might not be very helpful. I highly recommend checking out some of the other reviews - it seems like a lot of other people had an easier time reading this one than I did. Thank you so much to Scribner for sending me a copy of Survival Math to review.
May 30, 2019
This is a hard one to review. "Survival Math" is not a traditional linear memoir. It's mostly autobiographical essays woven together on a variety of topics--love, relationships, racism, family, drugs, the criminal justice system--surrounding the author and the men in his life (father, cousins, and uncles) in and around Portland, Oregon. Mitchell Jackson's mother is also a prominent figure throughout, but she's mostly discussed as it relates to the men in her life. The book also includes "Survivor Files," short, second person vignettes from the lives of men in his family.
I added this book with all the fervor that it was supposed to actually be good. Still, I'm conflicted on this. There's a lengthy section in the middle when the author talks all about his life as a serial cheater, man-whore, and general asshole to women. He discusses his cruelties in a very detailed manner, in the same way one would describe the subtleties of criminal behavior or the forensics of a crime scene. I appreciated the unique approach, but I felt like he was hiding behind this voice rather than honestly confronting his past. And then there was the 'why' of all of this, especially when only a small part of this section dealt with any kinda contrition for his past wrongs. Was this a rationalization of that behavior or a catharsis? Even after reading all of it I'm still unsure. The finer points of his injuries to others laid bare, but never really heart felt. I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a very smug humble brag going on.
There's also quite a long section about 75% of the way in where Jackson writes about the many 'pimps' in his family and their experiences on the streets. I skipped this section. Pardon me for saying so, but I resolved a long time ago to never read a male's perspective of women's sex work. When it comes to "the game" (as they put it), men are almost always the power brokers and exploiters, no matter how you slice it. There's also nothing glorious about physically and emotionally abusing women and taking their income, unless of course all the posturing is just another form of a humble brag, which I've already told you about.
It took me almost three months to read this. It's an ok book, but overall I just don't think it's my cup of tea.
[Note: A free digital copy of this book was provided to me by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.]
I added this book with all the fervor that it was supposed to actually be good. Still, I'm conflicted on this. There's a lengthy section in the middle when the author talks all about his life as a serial cheater, man-whore, and general asshole to women. He discusses his cruelties in a very detailed manner, in the same way one would describe the subtleties of criminal behavior or the forensics of a crime scene. I appreciated the unique approach, but I felt like he was hiding behind this voice rather than honestly confronting his past. And then there was the 'why' of all of this, especially when only a small part of this section dealt with any kinda contrition for his past wrongs. Was this a rationalization of that behavior or a catharsis? Even after reading all of it I'm still unsure. The finer points of his injuries to others laid bare, but never really heart felt. I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a very smug humble brag going on.
There's also quite a long section about 75% of the way in where Jackson writes about the many 'pimps' in his family and their experiences on the streets. I skipped this section. Pardon me for saying so, but I resolved a long time ago to never read a male's perspective of women's sex work. When it comes to "the game" (as they put it), men are almost always the power brokers and exploiters, no matter how you slice it. There's also nothing glorious about physically and emotionally abusing women and taking their income, unless of course all the posturing is just another form of a humble brag, which I've already told you about.
It took me almost three months to read this. It's an ok book, but overall I just don't think it's my cup of tea.
[Note: A free digital copy of this book was provided to me by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.]
April 30, 2019
I approached this book fully open to hearing a fresh voice and perhaps a new perspective. I would describe this book as rapper meets literature professor, lyrically and poetically written. Hence the 2 star review. However, I consider the content and the message to be a waste of time. I was staying open minded, but the further I progressed in this book, the more I became convinced that this author not only was, but definitely still is, a manipulative hustler. The final chapter, “Epilogue” confirmed it. His weak apologies about how he could be a better father and his elaborate explanation of how he went above and beyond to attend a father-daughter dance only showed me how little he thinks it takes to be a good father. I’m sure he imagines his daughter being so impressed with his writing success and so touched by his declarations of love that she’ll forgive all his transgressions, just like he brags about manipulating so many other women before her. Wow...he really is good at making himself sound repentant while continuing to inflate his own ego. I also think he’s playing both sides. He wants to be lauded by the type of people who will read and praise this book, give him grants/scholarships/degrees/jobs/speaking engagements etc but meanwhile still wants to retain his street credibility. After listening to his TED Talk and a very different description of his encounter with “Stitches”, I’m left wondering if some of his stories aren’t even true. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he hasn’t had nearly as many women in his life as he claims, nor the thug life he proclaims, and that it has all been invented or inflated. What would stop someone of his character from telling lies just to sell more books?
April 12, 2019
@scribnerbooks #partner | ✍🏽 mini•review
.
It’s an historical exploration into Black Portland + it’s also a deep encompassing look into Mitchell Jackson’s family history. It’s a collection of essays, sprinkled with poems and what the author deemed as “Survivor Files.” You see all the black men on the cover? (side note 📝 the cover is brilliant btw — y’all know I love a good cover) well the faces you see are the men in Jackson’s life: his brothers, uncles, cousins, a grandfather and a nephew and they make up the ‘Survivor Files’ which is a short narrative about their life
.
One thing I loved about this is the author’s candidness and self reflection. There was so many gems that the author dropped in his prose. Also, the construction which is nonlinear and don’t let this stop you from picking it up, it’s composed so well + I think it compliments the essay collection perfectly.
https://www.instagram.com/absorbedinp...
.
It’s an historical exploration into Black Portland + it’s also a deep encompassing look into Mitchell Jackson’s family history. It’s a collection of essays, sprinkled with poems and what the author deemed as “Survivor Files.” You see all the black men on the cover? (side note 📝 the cover is brilliant btw — y’all know I love a good cover) well the faces you see are the men in Jackson’s life: his brothers, uncles, cousins, a grandfather and a nephew and they make up the ‘Survivor Files’ which is a short narrative about their life
.
One thing I loved about this is the author’s candidness and self reflection. There was so many gems that the author dropped in his prose. Also, the construction which is nonlinear and don’t let this stop you from picking it up, it’s composed so well + I think it compliments the essay collection perfectly.
https://www.instagram.com/absorbedinp...
August 11, 2018
Mitch Jackson has one of the most unique prose styles I've ever read. This memoir manages to be engrossing & diffuse, telling his own story, his family's story, and the stories of other African-American men in his community. Like his debut novel The Residue Years this book is at times wrenching to read. It kept me up at night.
July 26, 2019
I'm not a fan of memoir as a genre (well, only fictional ones) so I may be approaching this book with the wrong attitude - I liked it, but with lots of buts. I liked the way he wove together his scholar voice and his daily life voice, but I also had the niggling feeling that he was hiding behind both voices at times, rather than honestly confronting himself. I liked reading his psychological take on the boys and men he grew up with, but I felt like he was still trying to impress the Men on the Scale, even as he dissected them. I sensed some version of the humble brag going on. I liked the honesty and love in his depictions of family members, especially of his mother. But, and this is the biggest but, I think he doesn't extend this to girlfriends, who never come across as real people - they're barely more than stereotypes. He talks about his cruelties, selfishness and transgressions in relationships, but they were described rather than felt. For an author who is so generously, entertainingly discursive, he suddenly seems to omit a lot. Rather than engage and grapple, he quits the field in the name of 'fairness', asking them to tell their side of the story'. Five reply, and the short text response in "Statement 4" brilliantly hit the nail on the head for me:
The question is, does he see the irony? That would be a good place to start reflecting.
This book has inspired me to read some other books on my TBR that may help me put this one in more context: Men We Reaped; Heavy: An American Memoir; How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays
Hi - ok. I'll think about it.
Question: why are you still writing about this.
Ok, so your asking all of us who may or may not hv been broken to help? Just trying to understand cuz the irony feels really sad...."
The question is, does he see the irony? That would be a good place to start reflecting.
This book has inspired me to read some other books on my TBR that may help me put this one in more context: Men We Reaped; Heavy: An American Memoir; How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays
January 26, 2019
Instead of writing to you about his life story, Mitchell S. Jackson’s prose feels like he is having a conversation about his life with the reader. He talks about not only his struggles, but generations of his families struggles with violence, prison, and drugs. It truly is a tale of overcoming your surroundings and bettering oneself as a person.
September 13, 2021
It was great to read a book that gave philosophical, sociological, historical and psychological context to a life barely escaped by the author and not escaped by many who mattered and to read about 3rd chances and 4th chances given and rewarded. It was great to read about transformation.
Jackson says "revision is a philosophy." If it is it is a hopeful one, a decent one, a non-racist one. This book took a lot from me, in the best ways. I was a criminology major, and the sociological underpinnings of sex work (including pimping) is something I have read about widely, and many years back wrote about. I found myself returning to source texts, both academic and non-academic and to some basic philosophy texts, mostly Immanuel Kant. Jackson did a great job stitching together separate but related disciplines to provide a framework for the paths taken by the people around him, both biological and chosen family and close friends. This lens is something I have not seen before, and it broadened the way I look a social dynamic that needs to be altered without being destroyed. As it is, it serves no one. I did ding Jackson a bit for the prolonged hagiography of several pimps. He talks a good game about how terrible pimping is, and he deploys feminist theory admirably, but he goes on and on about the brilliance and swagger of these men, thereby creating a monument to men who survived by helping to degrade and kill women. The story of his late aunt and the men around her (an apologia for this guy pimping his woman and exposing her son to terrible things) pissed me off and made me sad in equal measure. Jackson may want to do some further thinking about that. I am not saying pimps are necessarily monsters to their cores (though many are), or that you can't celebrate what is good in these individuals, but he celebrates aspects of pimp life that are very much a part of the problem. He really needs to read some more Audre Lorde IMHO.
This is the second time in recent weeks I have had something to say about GR reviewers. As an ally I can't not call this out, even though I recognize its kind of jerky. It was so interesting to me that when the white people in Educated did TERRIBLE things even though they had other options for success handed to them Goodreads reviewers sympathetically expressed that the author should get over it, accept that you can love people who are toxic but that the toxicity meant that she must distance herself from her family. When Jackson wrote about black people who did terrible things and did not have other options for success handed to them many GR reviewers attacked him and the people he had grown up thinking of as family. Several reviewers said that his longing to stay connected to people he knew had done bad things was evidence not of love (as with Westover) but instead evidence this was a con job. This even though working against even greater odds than Tara Westover (whom I greatly admire, this is not her fault) Jackson turned his life around. Jackson is demonstrably better educated than me , and I am guessing most reviewers, and he writes about important things and teaches at Columbia. To many reviewers, despite his Herculean accomplishments, he is still just a drug dealer not an exemplar. Bad news reviewers, y'all are racist. You are free to not like the book, it is very different than Educated, but on this point, the missing of and attachment to loved ones who are still doing bad things is the same here as in Educated, the only real distinction is that Jackson is black and Westover white. The Goodreads comments supporting Westover and castigating Jackson were depressing, but not surprising.
Jackson says "revision is a philosophy." If it is it is a hopeful one, a decent one, a non-racist one. This book took a lot from me, in the best ways. I was a criminology major, and the sociological underpinnings of sex work (including pimping) is something I have read about widely, and many years back wrote about. I found myself returning to source texts, both academic and non-academic and to some basic philosophy texts, mostly Immanuel Kant. Jackson did a great job stitching together separate but related disciplines to provide a framework for the paths taken by the people around him, both biological and chosen family and close friends. This lens is something I have not seen before, and it broadened the way I look a social dynamic that needs to be altered without being destroyed. As it is, it serves no one. I did ding Jackson a bit for the prolonged hagiography of several pimps. He talks a good game about how terrible pimping is, and he deploys feminist theory admirably, but he goes on and on about the brilliance and swagger of these men, thereby creating a monument to men who survived by helping to degrade and kill women. The story of his late aunt and the men around her (an apologia for this guy pimping his woman and exposing her son to terrible things) pissed me off and made me sad in equal measure. Jackson may want to do some further thinking about that. I am not saying pimps are necessarily monsters to their cores (though many are), or that you can't celebrate what is good in these individuals, but he celebrates aspects of pimp life that are very much a part of the problem. He really needs to read some more Audre Lorde IMHO.
This is the second time in recent weeks I have had something to say about GR reviewers. As an ally I can't not call this out, even though I recognize its kind of jerky. It was so interesting to me that when the white people in Educated did TERRIBLE things even though they had other options for success handed to them Goodreads reviewers sympathetically expressed that the author should get over it, accept that you can love people who are toxic but that the toxicity meant that she must distance herself from her family. When Jackson wrote about black people who did terrible things and did not have other options for success handed to them many GR reviewers attacked him and the people he had grown up thinking of as family. Several reviewers said that his longing to stay connected to people he knew had done bad things was evidence not of love (as with Westover) but instead evidence this was a con job. This even though working against even greater odds than Tara Westover (whom I greatly admire, this is not her fault) Jackson turned his life around. Jackson is demonstrably better educated than me , and I am guessing most reviewers, and he writes about important things and teaches at Columbia. To many reviewers, despite his Herculean accomplishments, he is still just a drug dealer not an exemplar. Bad news reviewers, y'all are racist. You are free to not like the book, it is very different than Educated, but on this point, the missing of and attachment to loved ones who are still doing bad things is the same here as in Educated, the only real distinction is that Jackson is black and Westover white. The Goodreads comments supporting Westover and castigating Jackson were depressing, but not surprising.
June 16, 2019
DNF@ 12%. This began with stream of consciousness,
not a favorite narrative.
Years ago my mental health client called a drug dealer "an
independent businessman." This served as a wink wink
nod nod, & implied, 'we know he's there, but let's ignore
him.'
The author glorified drug use & drug dealing (he spent
time incarcerated for drug dealing, a friend of a friend ran
a meth lab), & lied about the real reason he lost his college
scholarship (not a 'family emergency.')
I got the "composite father" concept. But was it emotionally
healthy for Mitchell to admire "Big Chris" a parolee bank
robber and a subsequent pimp?
My social work experience taught me some folks thought it
easier to break the law than hold down a boring, traditional,
underpaid job. One homeless client had 8 felonies! One client
justified doing a stick-'em-up: to feed his family! Or really
to buy 'smokes' and weed? US companies & TV shows and
commercials encourage us to be insatiable consumers. Street
drugs & violence : a direct result of rabid need (@ all social
levels) to accumulate stuff? The author seemed proud of his
Lexus, afforded via his old drug-dealing days. People trump
stuff in my book. Sorry for my "old school" thinking.
Revised
not a favorite narrative.
Years ago my mental health client called a drug dealer "an
independent businessman." This served as a wink wink
nod nod, & implied, 'we know he's there, but let's ignore
him.'
The author glorified drug use & drug dealing (he spent
time incarcerated for drug dealing, a friend of a friend ran
a meth lab), & lied about the real reason he lost his college
scholarship (not a 'family emergency.')
I got the "composite father" concept. But was it emotionally
healthy for Mitchell to admire "Big Chris" a parolee bank
robber and a subsequent pimp?
My social work experience taught me some folks thought it
easier to break the law than hold down a boring, traditional,
underpaid job. One homeless client had 8 felonies! One client
justified doing a stick-'em-up: to feed his family! Or really
to buy 'smokes' and weed? US companies & TV shows and
commercials encourage us to be insatiable consumers. Street
drugs & violence : a direct result of rabid need (@ all social
levels) to accumulate stuff? The author seemed proud of his
Lexus, afforded via his old drug-dealing days. People trump
stuff in my book. Sorry for my "old school" thinking.
Revised
December 11, 2019
I kept thinking of the statement Black Lives Matter as I listened to Jackson read his powerful memoir, which documents his life and critical incidents in the lives of some of his black male friends and family, and provides academic/journalistic context. Like Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, this is an important, gut-wrenching story from the front lines of American racism. Jackson’s dad was a pimp and his mom became addicted to crack, so this is grim reading for long stretches, and the content mix was jarring at first. But by the end I got acclimated to the structure, and I came away feeling moved and grateful for Jackson’s journey, his honesty in recounting it, his unique voice, and the insights he provides into the multigenerational effects of America’s racism. Plus: Portland!
September 12, 2019
I think a more appropriate subtitle for this book would be something like "Notes on American Masculinity." Yes, Jackson talked about his family, but he focused on the men in his family almost exclusively. He talked about his mother, but much (though not all) of what he said about her is couched in her relationship to the men in her life.
I had conflicted feelings about this book. I enjoyed the combination of memoir and sociology. I liked the structure that included what the author termed "survival files," vignettes from the lives of men in his family. I thought the narrative voice was strong. I understand that Jackson was sharing the life he knew and making sense of the world he inhabited. He was bringing an authentic voice to the topic of black masculinity. I appreciated his insights on the religion of whiteness and the relationship of white womanhood to both black and white manhood. I think those may have been the strongest parts of the book. But that didn't make it any easier to read detailed accounts of his philandering or accounts of sex work and the relationship of men in his family to sex work. As a reader I wasn't sure if his narrative processes was an attempt to come to terms with his past behaviors or to justify them; was it rationalizing or an act of catharsis? The book in some ways made womanhood feel less than, but at the same time, I appreciate that someone would be willing to be as honest as he could be about his world and about masculinity at large. I think I'll have to consider this book for a few more days and see what stays with me.
I had conflicted feelings about this book. I enjoyed the combination of memoir and sociology. I liked the structure that included what the author termed "survival files," vignettes from the lives of men in his family. I thought the narrative voice was strong. I understand that Jackson was sharing the life he knew and making sense of the world he inhabited. He was bringing an authentic voice to the topic of black masculinity. I appreciated his insights on the religion of whiteness and the relationship of white womanhood to both black and white manhood. I think those may have been the strongest parts of the book. But that didn't make it any easier to read detailed accounts of his philandering or accounts of sex work and the relationship of men in his family to sex work. As a reader I wasn't sure if his narrative processes was an attempt to come to terms with his past behaviors or to justify them; was it rationalizing or an act of catharsis? The book in some ways made womanhood feel less than, but at the same time, I appreciate that someone would be willing to be as honest as he could be about his world and about masculinity at large. I think I'll have to consider this book for a few more days and see what stays with me.
March 20, 2020
Survival Math was possibly one of the finest memoirs I've read in the last few years. Long a fan of Mitchell S. Jackson, I was wowed by this brother's ability to take the reader to a place they've never been but is so familiar. I knew his friends, family, sounds, sights, and the sorrows that reality and the unknown brings. This book was beautifully, although brutally, written, infused with the power to evoke emotions the reader may have rather remained hidden. But because Mitchell honestly exposes himself, he pulls, extracts, from our inner selves, the demons and angels we'd prefer to remain hidden.
I knew the book had to come to end, eventually, and the few lines, the feeling of his continued struggle, despite the many wins he's embraced, reminded me that our battle is never truly over.
Survival Math was inspiring, insightful, profoundly honest, shocking, frustrating, abominable, blessedly vulgar, and worthy of every hour it took to read it.
Bravo Mitchell S. Jackson!!! BRAVO!
I knew the book had to come to end, eventually, and the few lines, the feeling of his continued struggle, despite the many wins he's embraced, reminded me that our battle is never truly over.
Survival Math was inspiring, insightful, profoundly honest, shocking, frustrating, abominable, blessedly vulgar, and worthy of every hour it took to read it.
Bravo Mitchell S. Jackson!!! BRAVO!
September 4, 2020
Finally got around to finishing this book, possibly the most brilliant thing I've ever read by a black author, and by far the most searing, intelligent work on the black American experience I've come across other than some of the great classics like Invisible Man. It puts others to shame by portraying the reality of the current-day black American experience, including racism, on full display, with all of its complexity and pain. This is non-fiction, but it is stories, real stories, not always about race even but all about life in the black community, and makes it seem like the ivory tower authors whose books are so popular these days don't have any comprehension of reality. Their arguments about the definitions of "race" and "racism" are pedagogical and irrelevant.
The answer to the Question about Racism isn't in the intellectual vacuity of DiAngelo, the Marxist leanings of Kendi, or the definitional arguments of the Fields sisters, it's in sympathetic understanding, something completely missing from our extremely sheltered leaders and journalists with their politicized comments and reporting. To get behind it all, to see beyond the haze into the soul of black America, one can do no better than Mitchell's book. Or if you just want a gripping read, wildly creative as it moves from voice to voice, and can handle the constant painfulness of the stories, it is a great work in its own right. Highest recommendation to everyone.
The answer to the Question about Racism isn't in the intellectual vacuity of DiAngelo, the Marxist leanings of Kendi, or the definitional arguments of the Fields sisters, it's in sympathetic understanding, something completely missing from our extremely sheltered leaders and journalists with their politicized comments and reporting. To get behind it all, to see beyond the haze into the soul of black America, one can do no better than Mitchell's book. Or if you just want a gripping read, wildly creative as it moves from voice to voice, and can handle the constant painfulness of the stories, it is a great work in its own right. Highest recommendation to everyone.
May 31, 2020
Mitchell S. Jackson’s SURVIVAL MATH: NOTES ON AN ALL-AMERICAN FAMILY comes out Tuesday March 5. Jackson chronicles his life growing up in Portland, OR — a city comprised of only 3-5% African American individuals. Using an investigative voice, Jackson uncovers his and his family’s history involving drugs, hustling, violence, pimping, poverty. He writes specific stories about himself, but he places these narrative stories within a big-picture context using stats, interviews, data. This context provides the reader with a deeper understanding of “why” and “how” and “where do we go from here.”
I’ve not read anything like this book. Here is what makes SURVIVAL MATH unique:
➕Jackon’s voice and experience. He writes with a specific cadence, slipping in and out of academic language and a poetic/smooth voice.
✖️He attempts to combat ignorance, not innocence.
➕This is a memoir placed deeply within a historical context, which gives his whole community a voice and shows the greater need to imagine the possibility of “next steps” and “healing.”
✖️I loved Jackson’s conclusion: comparing living life to the work of writing. We revise and collaborate in community. We are always trying to improve and not accept anything less.
As a reader, I did have some trouble switching between the two styles of language (academic and conversational). The overall vision of the book made more sense at the end, and, until that point, I had trouble continuing with the book in the middle. Jackson doesn’t shy away from content — so triggers are heavy in this one (see above content list).
Jackson is honest and incredibly creative. I am glad he is willing to share his story, and that I had the opportunity to read it. I have so much more to learn. Thank you to @scribnerbooks for my free copy.
I’ve not read anything like this book. Here is what makes SURVIVAL MATH unique:
➕Jackon’s voice and experience. He writes with a specific cadence, slipping in and out of academic language and a poetic/smooth voice.
✖️He attempts to combat ignorance, not innocence.
➕This is a memoir placed deeply within a historical context, which gives his whole community a voice and shows the greater need to imagine the possibility of “next steps” and “healing.”
✖️I loved Jackson’s conclusion: comparing living life to the work of writing. We revise and collaborate in community. We are always trying to improve and not accept anything less.
As a reader, I did have some trouble switching between the two styles of language (academic and conversational). The overall vision of the book made more sense at the end, and, until that point, I had trouble continuing with the book in the middle. Jackson doesn’t shy away from content — so triggers are heavy in this one (see above content list).
Jackson is honest and incredibly creative. I am glad he is willing to share his story, and that I had the opportunity to read it. I have so much more to learn. Thank you to @scribnerbooks for my free copy.
February 25, 2019
“Survival Math” by Mitchell S. Jackson, published by Scribner.
Category – Memoir Publication Date – March 05, 2019.
This book could be classified in several categories. I picked Memoir but it just as easily could be classified as Biography or History.
This is the story of Mitchell S. Jackson growing up in a very fluid time in life, both his and the United States. It was both a very confusing time and one that garnered many choices, both good and bad. Mitchell made many choices, both good and bad and it is a wonder that he was able to overcome the bad and lived to write about it. Mitchell’s early life was living with a loving mother but had problems with men and drugs. His father, although absent for most of his life, did love him and had an influence on his choices in life.
Mitchell spent much of his life as a hustler. He was, lucky for him, a small time drug user and dealer. He and his family were subjected to drugs, prostitution, and people who had little or no regard for human life.
The history side of his story tells about life in the Portland, Oregon area that was neglected by government and crime was more a way of life. It is to his credit that he was able to overcome the downside of his life and pull himself up to not only tell his story but become a writer of exceptional ability.
An excellent read that gives a wonderful perspective of what it takes to overcome what seems to be impossible odds.
Category – Memoir Publication Date – March 05, 2019.
This book could be classified in several categories. I picked Memoir but it just as easily could be classified as Biography or History.
This is the story of Mitchell S. Jackson growing up in a very fluid time in life, both his and the United States. It was both a very confusing time and one that garnered many choices, both good and bad. Mitchell made many choices, both good and bad and it is a wonder that he was able to overcome the bad and lived to write about it. Mitchell’s early life was living with a loving mother but had problems with men and drugs. His father, although absent for most of his life, did love him and had an influence on his choices in life.
Mitchell spent much of his life as a hustler. He was, lucky for him, a small time drug user and dealer. He and his family were subjected to drugs, prostitution, and people who had little or no regard for human life.
The history side of his story tells about life in the Portland, Oregon area that was neglected by government and crime was more a way of life. It is to his credit that he was able to overcome the downside of his life and pull himself up to not only tell his story but become a writer of exceptional ability.
An excellent read that gives a wonderful perspective of what it takes to overcome what seems to be impossible odds.
March 6, 2019
Received as an ARC from the publisher. Started 2-25-19. Finished 3-4-19. Memoir of 16 Black men in one family and their effect on the author over a period of many years. Also tells about the American society's effect on these men. Slavery, lack of parental interaction, lack of adequate employment and education, lack of opportunities, prejudice and other American ills take their toll upon these men. Should be required reading in every Race Relations class. Forces the reader to do much soul-searching.
September 5, 2019
Sad, honest, powerful, seminal, this is an intricate masterpiece of a braided memoir about the experience of growing up as a black man in America and, specifically, in Portland, Oregon. It's also remarkable in that the writer spends a significant portion of the book being honest about, coming to terms with, and taking responsibility (and eventually showing remorse) for treating women, including his own daughter, horribly in his past. This book is so many things, among which is arguably the best example of a self motivated accountability/ reckoning process around misogyny that I've encountered from a male writer.
August 4, 2020
You can tell Mitchell S. Jackson worked his ass off to bring you these stories. His breakdown, mid-book, of what a hustler is ("at heart a transcendentalist, by which I mean at some point they gaze out at the world borne upon them and see beyond the moment, beyond the day, beyond the week, beyond the month, by which I mean they envision a future in which they've transcended their station.") reflects his deeply thoughtful and energetic writing. Survival Math contains many layers and voices and most of the time the focus is on uncomfortable truths of blood, kin, home, and skin. I took some reading breaks occasionally to listen to certain parts of the audio book, read in the author's own dulcet tones. I loved how much of the book was set so centrally in my own neighborhood (Mitch's childhood home is about three blocks from where I live), giving me not only a history of a black family in Portland, but of Portland as well. There were times I got lost in the sprawl of it, but overall, Survival Math is an incredible creation.
February 15, 2019
I don't know why. But I tried several times to read this book and couldn't get past a couple of pages.
December 30, 2019
4.5. An incredibly lyrical, thoughtful, self-reflective work that examines racism and sexism and growing up poor and black in Portland. Required reading for anyone who lives here. I struggled some with his reflection on his relationships--it's clear he's trying to do the work but has some blind spots still. Highly recommend listening to this on audiobook!!!
January 12, 2020
This was too innovative in form for me. I really appreciated it, but it shifted between memoir and history and sociology and journalism and second person storytelling too much for me to really settle into it. I think this book is really good, but not good for me.
September 28, 2020
Honestly, Survival Math almost lost me right from the start. Trying to slog through that introduction had me second guessing if I really wanted to continue with the stream of thought consciousness that was confusing at best and incomprehensible at worst. I’m glad I did though, because Survival Math turned out to be quite the experience.
Brutally honest Mitchell Jackson tells his story, and the stories of his family, of growing up black in Portland, Oregon. He goes in depth about the pervading culture and questionable beliefs that are practically viewed as ways of life within his community. The drugs, the hustling, the pimping, the gangs, the almost expected prison stint. The attitude towards school, jobs, women, family, fatherhood. Jackson holds nothing back as he recounts tales from his life, acknowledging the factors that were stacked against him while still addressing his own misguided choices.
Jackson is at his best when he’s storytelling. The prose is engrossing and his perspective unwavering. But too often Survival Math strays from memoir to academic essay, with pages upon pages of definitions and mythology and historical context. Plenty of times these passages enriched the particular story Jackson was retelling, but there were also too many times when the connections were strenuous and vague. I don’t think I’ve ever been pulled out of a story as fast as I was during the whole, definitions of a crime scene chapter.
Additionally, there are times when Jackson seems to lose his way. Particularly in one section where he spends ample time recounting numerous trespasses against the women in his life, mainly in the form of emotional detachment and cheating. While Jackson strives for authenticity and remorse, the general feeling is more apathetic. As if retelling the events somehow absolves him. While the majority of the novel is compelling precisely because of Jackson’s unique voice and his desire to understand the events that shaped him, this part was lacking and felt peppered with excuses. Definitely an insightful read, but not always an enjoyable one.
Brutally honest Mitchell Jackson tells his story, and the stories of his family, of growing up black in Portland, Oregon. He goes in depth about the pervading culture and questionable beliefs that are practically viewed as ways of life within his community. The drugs, the hustling, the pimping, the gangs, the almost expected prison stint. The attitude towards school, jobs, women, family, fatherhood. Jackson holds nothing back as he recounts tales from his life, acknowledging the factors that were stacked against him while still addressing his own misguided choices.
Jackson is at his best when he’s storytelling. The prose is engrossing and his perspective unwavering. But too often Survival Math strays from memoir to academic essay, with pages upon pages of definitions and mythology and historical context. Plenty of times these passages enriched the particular story Jackson was retelling, but there were also too many times when the connections were strenuous and vague. I don’t think I’ve ever been pulled out of a story as fast as I was during the whole, definitions of a crime scene chapter.
Additionally, there are times when Jackson seems to lose his way. Particularly in one section where he spends ample time recounting numerous trespasses against the women in his life, mainly in the form of emotional detachment and cheating. While Jackson strives for authenticity and remorse, the general feeling is more apathetic. As if retelling the events somehow absolves him. While the majority of the novel is compelling precisely because of Jackson’s unique voice and his desire to understand the events that shaped him, this part was lacking and felt peppered with excuses. Definitely an insightful read, but not always an enjoyable one.
October 19, 2019
This is one of the few books I've had difficulty getting through. The longer I read, the less I liked it, and I admit to just skimming sections of the back third. The narrative voice wasn't consistent, and if the narrator of a memoir hasn't figured out who they are yet, that memoir's going to suffer, as this one certainly did. I think if the author could have settled down to maybe three themes, and concentrated on those, it would have been better.
January 12, 2019
Mitchell Jackson's " Survival Math" brought out more than an autobiography in my opinion.
In the book, he talked a lot of his life of crime, his family's generations to gentrification and settling in parts of the northwestern area of the US that were unknown territory to African Americans at that time. I really enjoyed the way the book was written. Thank you for letting me review.
In the book, he talked a lot of his life of crime, his family's generations to gentrification and settling in parts of the northwestern area of the US that were unknown territory to African Americans at that time. I really enjoyed the way the book was written. Thank you for letting me review.
March 30, 2019
Hard to review this one. The writing style is something else. I mean this is the best example of authorial voice I can think of. I really liked the survival files sections, and my favorite section of the book was on blood and plasma donations. but I think the author tried to do too much with this book and there were times I lost the trail.
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