Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence by Geoffrey Canada Adapted by Jamar Nichols 305.23 CANADA

Geoffrey Canada’s excellent memoir of growing up tough in the Bronx has been adapted into a powerful black and white graphic novel. Geoffery tells stage by stage how he learned from child to adolescent to man to use violence to define himself and survive the streets of the Bronx.

This is a well told look at the burden of violence in the inner city. Geoff has to fight and always show his strength or he will lose all standing in his Bronx neighborhood. The older he gets the more violent his peers and he must become to survive until he must make a decision to reject violence or be consumed by it. The art has a simple style that looks like a mix of funky 70s comics and street art and fits the story to a tee. Fist Stick Knife Gun takes you to another time and place and perfectly captures the fear and power of living surrounded by violence. A great read for fans or urban fiction.



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