I am reading this for week 28 (a biography, autobiography, or memoir).
From the Goodreads Summary: In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life—to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth—and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships.
So far I am finding it well written but difficult to spend too much time with. I've just been reading a chapter at a time. There is a lot of sad stuff happening.
The structure of the book is interesting. It alternates chapters about the author's growing up experience (in chronological order) with chapters about the death of each of the young men (in reverse chronological order).
From the Goodreads Summary:
In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life—to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth—and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships.
So far I am finding it well written but difficult to spend too much time with. I've just been reading a chapter at a time. There is a lot of sad stuff happening.
The structure of the book is interesting. It alternates chapters about the author's growing up experience (in chronological order) with chapters about the death of each of the young men (in reverse chronological order).