9781631493119 |
(hardcover) |
1631493116 |
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Summary
Summary
In a shattering work that shifts between a woman's private anguish over the loss of her beloved baby cousin and a scholar's fierce critique of the American prison system, Danielle Allen seeks answers to what, for many years, felt unanswerable. Why? Why did her cousin, a precocious young man who dreamed of being a firefighter and a writer, end up dead? Why did he languish in prison? And why, at the age of fifteen, was he in an alley in South Central Los Angeles, holding a gun while trying to steal someone's car?
Cuz means both "cousin" and "because." In this searing memoir, Allen unfurls a "new American story" about a world tragically transformed by the sudden availability of narcotics and the rise of street gangs--a collision, followed by a reactionary War on Drugs, that would devastate not only South Central L.A. but virtually every urban center in the nation. At thirteen, sensitive, talkative Michael Allen was suddenly tossed into this cauldron, a violent world where he would be tried at fifteen as an adult for an attempted carjacking, and where he would be sent, along with an entire generation, cascading into the spiral of the Los Angeles prison system.
Throughout her cousin Michael's eleven years in prison, Danielle Allen--who became a dean at the University of Chicago at the age of thirty-two--remained psychically bonded to her self-appointed charge, visiting Michael in prison and corresponding with him regularly. When she finally welcomed her baby cousin home, she adopted the role of "cousin on duty," devotedly supporting Michael's fresh start while juggling the demands of her own academic career.
As Cuz heartbreakingly reveals, even Allen's devotion, as unwavering as it was, could not save Michael from the brutal realities encountered by newly released young men navigating the streets of South Central. The corrosive entanglements of gang warfare, combined with a star-crossed love for a gorgeous woman driving a gold Mercedes, would ultimately be Michael's undoing.
In this Ellisonian story of a young African American man's coming-of-age in late twentieth-century America, and of the family who will always love Michael, we learn how we lost an entire generation.
Author Notes
Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and author of Cuz and Our Declaration, winner of the Parkman Prize. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Allen, a professor of history at Harvard University and author of Our Declaration, tells the story of her late cousin Michael, who spent his years "from adolescent bloom to full manhood" in prison. In doing so, she puts a face to the numbing statistics of incarcerated young black boys and men. Michael's story is not simple: he didn't have a criminal history when he was arrested for attempted carjacking in 1995, but he was charged as an adult with multiple offenses, thus exposing him to California's three-strikes law and leading to a plea bargain and 11 years in prison. While serving time, Michael flourished, becoming a firefighter and completing his GED and some college correspondence courses. After his release in 2006, and with Allen's help, Michael obtained a driver's license, bank account, library card, job, and housing. At the time, Allen was hopeful that with the help and support of his family "Michael could defy the pattern of parolees" and straighten his life out. Alas, in July 2009, barely three years out of prison, Michael was found shot dead in his car. Allen attributes Michael's tragic death to two elements. One was that Michael found himself trapped in "a war between sovereigns: the parastate of a drug world increasingly linked to gangs on one side, and the California and federal governments on the other." The other was his love for a transsexual woman he met in prison who in the end was charged with his murder. At its heart, Allen's book is both an outcry and entreaty as she grapples with a painful reality: "I no longer knew a way of helping." (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Allen, Harvard professor and author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014), illuminates the path that led to her cousin Michael's incarceration at age 15 and to his murder at 29, less than a year after his release. Eight years the author's junior, Michael was Allen's father's sister's son. Though a chasm existed between their circumstances Allen's parents, an academic and a librarian, raised her with stability in idyllic Claremont, California, while Michael's strong, loving mother struggled to advance her career, secure reliable housing, and make ends meet for her three children after leaving their abusive father they were always close. Arrested after an attempted carjacking in 1995, Michael also confessed to two other armed robberies and, three strikes suddenly against him, was sentenced to more than a decade in prison, where he would meet his eventual undoing. Allen, whose writing is creative and accessible, uses her finely tuned talent to fold Michael's fate into the gathering storms of the U.S. criminal-justice system and Los Angeles' gang-related and racial turmoil. Both a searching, personal elegy and a sure-footed lamentation of the systems meant to protect us, this is a searing must-read.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2017 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Allen (director, Edmond J. Safra Ctr. for Ethics, Harvard, Univ.) relays the story of her cousin Michael, arrested at 15 for an attempted carjacking. Tried as an adult, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. -Allen, who was raised in a university town, contrasts the opportunities afforded her in childhood that were lacking in Michael's. His own upbringing, characterized by abuse and instability, disadvantaged him at an early age. When Michael was released from prison in 2006, Allen helped him find a job and a place to live. His prospects quickly dissolved as he resumed a volatile relationship with a woman named Bree, whom he met in prison. His affair with Bree, who is transgender, is insufficiently explored, and other developments, such as his conversion to Islam, remain unplumbed. The circumstances of his death are also hazy and lack details. VERDICT Although Allen's efforts to reconstruct and understand Michael's life sometimes feel disjointed, this book aptly demonstrates the ways in which young black men in America slip through the cracks, and how our collective institutions fail to safeguard at-risk youth.-Barrie Olmstead, -Sacramento P.L. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Part I Release and Resurrection | |
1 Garden Party, July 2009 | p. 3 |
2 Release Day, June 2006 | p. 5 |
3 The Investigation, July 2009 | p. 10 |
4 Getting Started, June-July 2006 | p. 13 |
5 Job, July 2006 | p. 18 |
6 Investigation, July 2009 | p. 21 |
7 School, August 2006 | p. 26 |
8 Funeral, July 27,2009 | p. 29 |
9 Apartment, August 2006 | p. 36 |
10 Hitting Bottom, November 2006 | p. 41 |
11 The End, August 2008-July 2009 | p. 47 |
Part II Inferno | |
12 Crime and Punishment | p. 59 |
13 Where was Our Family? Where were the Lawyers? | p. 70 |
14 Milestones | p. 81 |
15 Norco | p. 89 |
16 Inferno in Michael's Words | p. 102 |
17 Visiting 1.0 | p. 107 |
18 Visiting 2.0 | p. 114 |
19 Dizzy | p. 119 |
20 The Biggest Wildfire in California History | p. 125 |
Part III Unforgiving World | |
21 Fire and Ice | p. 149 |
22 The Single Mother and the Great White Whale | p. 153 |
23 First Steps | p. 157 |
24 "Sis, Run!" | p. 161 |
25 Gangbanging-a Definition | p. 171 |
26 How Not to Help Your Kids | p. 181 |
27 The Limit on Helping Your Kids | p. 187 |
28 City of Angels | p. 194 |
29 The End | p. 204 |
30 My Heart's Locket | p. 215 |
Coda: What Next? | p. 216 |
Notes | p. 225 |
A Note on Sources | p. 235 |
Acknowledgments | p. 237 |
Credits | p. 241 |