Buck: A Memoir

Buck: A Memoir

A coming-of-age story about navigating the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family, Buck shares the story of a generation through one original and riveting voice. MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: his mother a dancer, his father a revered professor. But as a teenager, MK was alone on the streets of North Philadelphia, swept up in a world of drugs, sex, and violence. MKâ€™s memoir is an unforgettable tale of how one precocious, confused kid educated himself through gangs, rap, mystic cults, ghetto philosophy, and, eventually, books. It is an inspiring tribute to the power of literature to heal and redeem us.

Praise for Buck
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â€œA story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style.â€â€”Maya AngelouÂ
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â€œIn America, we have a tradition of black writers whose autobiographies and memoirs come to define an era. . . . Buck may be this generationâ€™s story.â€â€”NPR

â€œThe voice of a new generation. . . . You will love nearly everything about Buck.â€â€”Essence

â€œA virtuoso performance . . . [an] extraordinary page-turner of a memoir . . . written in a breathless, driving hip-hop prose style that gives it a tough, contemporary edge.â€â€”The Philadelphia Inquirer

â€œFrequently brilliant and always engaging . . . It takes great skill to render the wide variety of characters, male and female, young and old, that populate a memoir like Buck. Asante [is] at his best when he sets out into the city of Philadelphia itself. In fact, that city is the true star of this book. Phillyâ€™s skateboarders, its street-corner philosophers and its tattoo artists are all brought vividly to life here. . . . Asanteâ€™s memoir will find an eager readership, especially among young people searching in books for the kind of understanding and meaning that eludes them in their real-life relationships. . . . A powerful and captivating book.â€â€”Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times

â€œRemarkable . . . Asanteâ€™s prose is a fluid blend of vernacular swagger and tender poeticism. . . . [He] soaks up James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston and Walt Whitman like thirsty ground in a heavy rain. Buck grew from that, and itâ€™s a bumper crop.â€â€”Salon
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â€œBuck is so honest it floatsâ€”even while itâ€™s so down-to-earth that the reader feels like an ant peering up from the concrete. Itâ€™s a powerful book. . . . Asante is a hip-hop raconteur, a storyteller in the Homeric tradition, an American, a rhymer, a big-thinker singing a song of himself. Youâ€™ll want to listen.â€â€”The Buffalo News

From the Trade Paperback edition.
Country USA
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2013-08-20
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2013-08-20
Format	Kindle eBook

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