Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison Analysis

Shaka's old neighborhood is one of the nicer ones in the city of Detroit…at least until crack becomes a huge problem. What Shaka calls "the crack epidemic" (5.69) wreaks havoc in the city and cre...

Basically, memoir is a fancy word for a true story.But it's not quite as simple as writing down the true events that have shaped your life. Most good memoirs have a theme and a purpose—they're ab...

There are several layers of significance wrapped up in Writing My Wrongs' double meanings: Shaka is writing the story of the wrongs done to him and the wrongs he's done in this book.  Shaka's...

"The unexamined life is not worth living." —Socrates, Plato's ApologyThis whole book is about Shaka learning to live the examined life. It's an unwillingness to examine his life and deal with his...

Shaka ends the book with a letter to the reader, an afterword that tells the story of how his victim's godmother had hope that he could change. Then he makes an eloquent statement about having hope...

This book has some heavy-duty themes: life, death, drugs, revenge, redemption, racism—you name it. But it has a riveting narrative told in everyday language that's designed to be approachable to...