Buck

A Memoir

By: MK Asante

Narrated by: MK Asante, Adenrele Ojo

Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A rebellious boy's journey through the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family - this is the riveting story of a generation told through one dazzlingly poetic new voice.

MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: a mother who led the new nation's dance company and a father who would soon become a revered pioneer in Black studies. But things fell apart, and a decade later MK was in America, a teenager lost in a fog of drugs, sex, and violence on the streets of North Philadelphia. Now he was alone - his mother in a mental hospital, his father gone, his older brother locked up in a prison on the other side of the country - and forced to find his own way to survive physically, mentally, and spiritually, by any means necessary.

Buck is a powerful memoir of how a precocious kid educated himself through the most unconventional teachers - outlaws and eccentrics, rappers and mystic strangers, ghetto philosophers and strippers, and, eventually, an alternative school that transformed his life with a single blank sheet of paper. It's a one-of-a-kind story about finding your purpose in life, and an inspiring tribute to the power of education, art, and love to heal, and redeem us.

©2013 MK Asante (P)2013 Random House

Critic reviews

"A story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style." (Maya Angelou)

" Buck takes the daily words of the American streets and forges something low and lovely. Angry, profane, and beautiful, it honors the best of hip-hop's literary canon by producing a work worthy of inclusion." (Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Beautiful Struggle)

" Buck sings a song that will force all of America to face what it has become and remember what it could be." (Eddie Huang, author of Fresh off the Boat)

Never knew

An author who reads you his own book. AMAZING. I had a hard time staying tuned but when I did just wow. Most recommended.

Powerful

I have so many quotes written down that I have to go and by a hardcopy and highlight them so I can keep them all in place. listening to Buck while driving made my commute worthy of its drive. It was even better when read by MK Asante himself. I believed it. extremely powerful with the Co narrator reading Amina's letters.

Amazing and captivating<br />

This is a captivating look into the life of an amazing young man. I read first half of this book then decided to listen to the audible version when I learned it was read by the author. To hear this story on his own words added the passion and dimension I could not have imagined. Books like this are the reason I love to read.

God Saves? Where? Not in Killadephia Pistolvania!

This story had ne hooked from the beginning to end. The story is about Malo, the protagonist and his brother Uzi. The analogies used throughout this book were spot on, along with the quotes from famous authors.
Milo, just runs because that's the only thing that saves him from dying. Boy's trying to live in the trails of being black in the world. Uzi turned from a boy into a man, while in prison, his spirit changed, even in his eyes.
Milo challenges himself to read and learn more daily. "People get use to anything, the less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. Like it's a normal state of things, but to become truly free you have to be acutely aware of being a slave". He learns that writing is like speaking another language, it can be explored by anyone who reads it. just as a thermometer or thermostats, one's the temperature while the other reflects it; he wants his writing to be like a thermostat.
Some of the apologies/quotes that stuck out to me were below: Afrocentricity means black people should view the world through their own black eyes. People without knowledge their past is like a tree without roots.
You can be born in Georgia, but that doesn't make you more American than a water in a log. African proverb, no matter how long a log sits in the water, it'll never be a crocodile. Expectation before Assimilation.
I can go on and on about this book. Great read, I reccomend any young man of color to read this. I will be passing this one on to my son. #book18of2019 #bookworm #whatsnext

Extraordinary

I taught at Crefeld for a decade. Malo Asante graduated the year before I started, so I had heard of him, and met him a few times when he came to Crefeld to read his poetry or share time with our community. I knew his story, but it didn’t really feel it until I read/listened to it.

And wow did I feel it. It made me cry several times, and it made me gasp with deep joy. Especially the voice of his mother, who was so like my own.

Parts of this were difficult for me to listen to. The way many of the young men in his early life talked about and treated women is violent and dehumanizing. As a survivor myself much of it was triggering for me.

But I kept coming back because I saw the man Malo became when he came back to visit Crefeld, and I had read his first book of poetry, which was wonderful

I’m very glad I did. This is a story about love, about the strength of love and it’s power to lead us away from lives of brokenness and towards lives of beauty, strength and connection.

You need this book in your life....

Words can't express how wonderful this book is written and told. The memoir of the author touches so many fragments of society and allows the reader to join him on his journey to from being a young "buck" to man. It's a great read but even better listen.

Entertaining

I love this story, I want to know what's next for milo and his family.

Urban Coming of age story

"Hip Hop Turrets" best describes his writing style. Discusses issues of the black family seldom discussed.

inspiring

the book was a great book it helped me a 6th grader learn how much I have thank you buck

amazing

i loved it first book for school and i was very happy about it. is one of the realest books i have ever read.