I’m halfway through this book and it is a fascinating meander around his shooting, that provides an excuse to give us his entire upbringing…it sometimes seems to lose its way a little but he is an engaging writer with a solid voice. The most interesting aspect to me is the view he gives us inside the rotten core of Staten Island AKA “Coptown.” Well, I always wondered how kids like him gave each other their crazy nicknames. Now I know. And here’s the answer if anyone wonders why malingering policemen have nothing better to do around those parts than wait around for the opportunity to gang up on black men and strangle them to death. What an insular, racist dump; no wonder that of all the times I’ve ridden that ferry, I’ve never once gotten off on the other side—it is one of the primary exceptions to New York’s generally inclusive multiculturalism.
