Manchild in the Promised Land

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 416 pages
• Published by: Touchstone
• Edition: 1st Edition June 3, 1999
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0684864185
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0684864181
• Book Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 12.8 ounces

Product Review
James BaldwinA awesome achievement.

Tom WolfeManchild in the Promised Land is Claude Brown's unforgettable epic of growing up as a boy on the streets of Harlem. His Zola-esque gift for slices of life is made all the more striking by his brilliant insights into character and social pressures.

Tom WolfeNew York Herald TribuneIncredible! No Negro writer ever told the whole street thing in Harlem: Claude Brown is the first.

Norman MailerThe first thing I ever read which gave me an idea of what it would be like day by day if I'd grown up in Harlem.

Dick SchaapBooksThis is a awesome book, not a good book, not an interesting book, a awesome book.It is a guided tour of hell conducted by a man who broke out.

Romulus LinneyThe New York Times Book ReviewIt is written with brutal and unvarnished honesty in the plain talk of the people, in language that is fierce, uproarious, obscene and tender.

Nat HentoffBook WeekSprung from the alley, a rare catAs a survivor among the dying and the dead, Brown tells it like it was-and like it still is.

Atlanta JournalHe writes about his life -- and Harlem -- with frank, brutal, and gorgeous power. Mr. Brown's graphic narrative will make you laugh, cry, think, and possibly understand.

Daniel A. PolingBrown's Harlem is alive in a way that no black ghetto has heretofore been brought to life between book jackets.

William MathesLos Angeles TimesSometimes a unique voice speaks out so clearly and with so much passion that it comes to speak for an era, a generation, a peopleand we have to listen.

Product Review
Dick Schaap Books This is a awesome book, not a good book, not an interesting book, a awesome book.It is a guided tour of hell conducted by a man who broke out.

Reader Reviews
This was without doubt the most important book I read as a teenager. I moved to NYC from California when I was twelve and was pretty naive in the workings of the city. Reading this book when I was 13 helped me immensely. It was a street-wise primer for survival at the time (we're talking 1964). But I would hold that the subject matter is just as relevant today. If you don't know about a "Jones" or what makes a three-card-monty mark want to come back for more, then I suggest you are just as vulnerable as I was. It's also one of the all-time cautionary tales (without being preachy) about drug addiction. I did a lot of drugs in the late 60's, early 70's, but never touched heroin, primarily from reading this book. The writing, while maybe not on the level of Richard Wright, surpasses Malcom X's and Eldridge Cleaver's memoirs, and that's saying something, as those were both powerful works as well.