Customer Reviews

A Place to Stand

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jimmy Santiago Baca is the recipient of major awards for his raw and emotional poetry. In my opinion, these awards are more special than the average literary awards: They've been earned by a man whose literacy was truly hard won.

A PLACE TO STAND is a memoir of Jimmy's childhood of abandonment, his career selling drugs, and his time in prison. This is also an account of how an illiterate prisoner fought for the privilege to teach himself how to read--and then to write, by corresponding with Harry, a Christian man on the outside, and by writing poems for other cons in exchange for books.

This is not a pretty history. The epilogue tells the shocking tale of his mother's fate. Racism plays its usual dirty role through much of the book. And JSB's account of prison life makes most prison movies look almost civilized. (In an interview with Jimmy in a Santa Fe arts newspaper, he said that he even toned it down for this book because many people cannot accept the harsh truth of prison culture.)

This book is an inspiration to all writers and a testimony to the human spirit. Visit Jimmy's Website to read about his work with at-risk teenagers as founder of Black Mesa Enterprises. And if you haven't yet experienced his poetry, try it first on CD. His readings will blow you away.

This memoir revolves around the life of one of the best authors I've read. This story goes through the harsh life Jimmy Santiago had to endure. You get to see from a first person look the challenges that a victim of racism has to go through. Through his problems with drugs and drug dealing he gets thrown into prison, which is, were remorse and the great deal of drama comes out. One of great things about this book is that he puts you into his shoes for the entire story; you get to feel the sorrow, and pain he felt. As you go through book you see how horrible prison is and how prominent gangs are and how if you aren't in one you can be in some serious danger. You also see how he had been treated unjust and how people of high authority don't always use their power for the good of people or the help of people. The high degree of hate and abuse in this story really surprised me but never did turn me away from the involving and magnetic story. The most heart breaking parts of the story has to be in the end, don't worry I'm not going to spoil it but it does show the destruction, and control drugs, alcohol, and racism has over people. I felt that Jimmy Santiago had told his story in a detailed, and very powerful way. I would recommend this memoir to any reader looking for a dramatic and very forceful read.

A Place To Stand, by award winning poet and seasoned playwright Jimmy Santiago Baca, is the memoir of a difficult and sometimes violent life. Sent to an orphanage at a young age, encountering violence and bigotry at each turn, he became a criminal and a drug dealer. Sentenced to prison, he had to go to extreme lengths to stay alive - even slicing an attacker's stomach with a butcher knife. Though self-defense, his violent acts earned him repeated time in solitary confinement. There, struggling to resist the dehumanization of prison life, he encountered memories and revelations that transformed him and inspired him to express himself through poetry. Yet even when the end of his prison sentence and freedom beckoned, more tragedy awaited him and his family. A harrowing true story, of unbearable loss and suffering, with a final revelation offering a tiny flicker of hope. A Place To Stand is riveting, compelling, impossible to put down and highly recommended.

I was touched by the author's story and commend him for making it through a very rough life. I could relate with him when he told of his early chilhood days. I was raised in Albuqurerque New Mexico and had a Grandfather and Grandmother "Baca". His descriptions of family, food, and places touched home.
I couldn't put this book down, a very good read.

This is an excellent book. I dont read much but this book caught my attention fast. I can relate to this book alot because I grew up in some of the same sercomstances and had similar problems in life like Jimmy Santiago Baca did. And its good to know that no matter where u came from, what color or what youve been through u can pull out of the gutters and change your life like Jimmy did. It makes me proud to be Latino. I give this book 10 stars out of 5!

I'm giving this book five stars, not because it is a literary masterpiece, but because it is a compelling memoir that I can't forget. I felt a gamut of emotions while reading this book, but for the most part I ached for Mr. Baca and the pain and anguish he suffered. I thank him for writing about his life so eloquently.

Being a Chicano, about the same age as Jimmy Baca and the son of a prison guard who worked for 28 years at Ariz State Prison, I read this story with great interest. I not convinced that all the details about Jimmy's time in the Joint were believeable but Mr Baca has my absolute respect for elevating himself and recognizing that surviving meant more than just "geeting out!". He writes with the anger, color and passion of a proud latino who understands that life only gets better if YOU change it. I recommend this work as well as Jimmy's poetry.

I fell upon this book in a Pasadena, California bookstore while looking for a book to read on my journey back to Saudi Arabia. I finished this riveting tale midway across the Atlantic. Mr. Baca's means of describing the details of his childhood hits a chord with fabulous descriptions of both the bitter and sweet moments in his life. I know that Jimmy's grandfather is looking down from heaven with pride in his grandson's accomplishments as a both a writer and outstanding human being. An awesome book Jimmy Santiago Baca! Thank You for letting me into your life.

At first i did not find the book interesting, but one day at work i started reading it and i realized this book was amazing. I love how he gives details of what he's thinking about when he's in prison and you can actually envision it. It's amazing how much pain he been through in his life and still manage to become successful in the end. The ending of the book is very sad because he lost two people that he loved. Just finally when his mother finds happiness and comes back into his life she is violently murdered. This book was very unpredictable. His style of writing is unique. The only thing I did not like was that he kept reminiscing in every chapter and those are the only boring parts of the book.

Edwin
LLS 108
FALL 2011

A Place To Stand is a Outstanding Book which i found to be interesting to read even thought it has its boring parts. The book switches moods pretty fast, it could go from suspense to extremely boring in a flip of a page. The other downside to this book is that most of the time it feel like fiction then a biography because sometimes the things that happen seem kind of unreal but overall the book seem pretty solid for the most part.Another thing is that while your reading the book you may ask your self if Jimmy Santiago want you to know his story or feel bad for him since for most of the time he talks how bad his life was vise versa. I would defiantly recommend if you love reading since the story is interesting overall but you may get bored one in a while since the mood changes in part of the book like I stated before.