Friday, March 26, 2010

Street Books - Inner City Hoodlum Donald Goines




Found - Eastern Parkway and Washington Ave across the street from the Brooklyn Museum of Art
Picked up because - The name of the book "Inner City Hoodlum"

This is a short little fiction that is set in the "Cesspool of Los Angeles." This story is about the streets and from the streets. This is the last book from who is concerted one of the first African American writers of urban fiction Donald Goines. Inner City Hoodlum, which Goines had finished before his death, was published posthumously in 1975. Donald did have a hard life on the streets. He Lived and finally died on the streets when he and his wife were shot to death in Detroit one October night. Goines has been a thief, a pimp, drug dealer and an addict. He has lived the life of his characters. He wrote 16 books in just five years, most in jail or the Penitentiary. Some of his books have become films, such as "Never Die Alone" and "Crime Partners" with Ice-T and Snoop Dogg. Many rappers have praised Goines and his writing like RZA, 2Pac, Nas, Ghostface Killah, Ludacris, and Common. This career criminal with seven prison sentences proved he could also be a writer and could give the "real" story from the ghetto. In this book he has a good story of two friends that get pulled deeper and deeper into the "game." A story that runs into some tight spots that make it that much more exciting. To bad this author was gunned down in the streets and the identity of the killer or killers remains unknown.

1 comment:

  1. I am embarrassed to say I have not read any of Goines' books YET. I will read this one now. Sounds like a very interesting and influential individual.

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