Street Shadows

Masterfully told, marked by irony and humor as well as outrage and a barely contained sadness, Jerald Walker's Street Shadows is the story of a young man's descent into the "thug life" and the wake-up call that led to his finding himself again. Walker was born in a Chicago housing project and raised, along with his six brothers and sisters, by blind parents of modest means but middle-class aspirations. A boy of great promise whose parents and teachers saw success in his future, he seemed destined to fulfill their hopes. But by age fourteen, like so many of his friends, he found himself drawn to the streets. By age seventeen he was a school dropout, a drug addict, and a gangbanger, his life spiraling toward the violent and premature end all too familiar to African American males. And then came the blast of gunfire that changed everything: His coke-dealing friend Greg was shot to death--less than an hour after Walker scored a gram from him. "Twenty-five years...