Down These Mean Streets

I've been meaning to read Piri Thomas' book, DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS for about 5 years. I finally caved in when I saw a used copy for a couple bucks and I'm sorry I didn't read it earlier.

It's so delicious in all sorts of ways and its push-you-up-against-a-wall style won't let you breathe until you finish it. It's harsh, but it has such tender moments that many prison memoirs don't touch. Don't think for a minute that Thomas lets it be about that alone. He talks about growing up in Spanish Harlem with a keen eye to detail. One thing that you can tell is that this book, still in print after 40 years, is that it has definitively been an influential work.

Maybe that influence lies in the weaker aspects of the book (few and far between). I mean, so often one book is influential to a generation of writers and then one of their books is influential and so on and at the end of it all, you get an incredibly dense and stylistically tight book that comes only from a sound brickwork. This isn't to say that Thomas' book is weak. I think it's incredibly strong. It's just obvious that his writing is based on a lack ; his lack of formal education, his lack of resources, lack of means, etc. This is of course, what gives the book its edge. It isn't fiction, it's not pretend.

Piri Thomas gives no apology for his life, but that's exactly what makes this book such a powerful force.