With broad appeal and perfect timing this could be the pick-it-up and pass-it-on memoir of the season. Walker contrasts his misspent youth in the Chicago projects with his adult life as a college professor and family man.Moving back and forth fluidly through time, Walker creates a vivid sense of character, his own and those around him, as well as the standard pitfalls of ghetto life he narrowly avoided. The result is a funny, poignant, thoughtful and exceptionally well-written memoir that follows Walker from Chicago to Africa and locations across the U.S., each of which is crisply, authentically captured. While delivering a thorough, personal take on race relations, opportunity, and privilege, Walker hooks readers with his prose and honesty, without plying for sympathy or playing to readers' preconceptions.

posted Jul 9, 2010 at 4:13PM

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