Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America [Paperback]

Geoffrey Canada (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 1996

Long before U.S. News and World Report named him one of America's Best Leaders and Oprah Winfrey called him "an angel from God," Geoffrey Canada was a small, vulnerable, scared boy growing up in the South Bronx. Canada's world was one where "sidewalk" boys learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, and knife. Then the streets changed, and the stakes got even higher. In this candid and riveting memoir, Canada relives a childhood in which violence stalked every street corner. "If you wonder how a fourteen-year-old can shoot another child his own age in the head and then go home to dinner," Canada writes, "you need to know you don't get there in a day, or week, or month. It takes years of preparation to be willing to commit murder, to be willing to kill or die for a corner, a color, or a leather jacket."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Canada, a legendary educator and crusader for inner-city-youth, first published in 1995 his revelatory account of the daunting push toward violent behavior that was a part of his Bronx childhood. This graphic adaptation by Nicholas works as a kind of youth-friendly summary of that book's conclusions. Canada's thoughtful, no-nonsense narrative begins in the Bronx in the late 1950s, after his father left him, his mother, and two brothers to fend for themselves. The spine of the story is not so much the broad array of violence on display in a neighborhood suffering from postwar white flight and increases in crime, but Canada's surgical analysis of the stages of violence and the strictly codified strata that reigned on his street and in his school. Helped by Nicholas's dramatic but low-key illustrations, Canada describes how he graduated from one level of violence to the next in a sort of ladder of self-protection. This inexorable evolution is dismaying enough before Canada moves ahead to show how those codes of violence eventually collapsed under an influx of guns. This is exactly the sort of broadly appealing and gripping nonfiction graphic novel that librarians need to be adding to their shelves. (Oct.) (c)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

This adaptation of Canada’s 1996 book joins G. Neri’s Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty (2010) and Robert Renteria’s Mi Barrio (2010) in a recent graphic mini-trend of gritty urban biographies. But while the former was about how the violence of the streets can corrupt and destroy and the latter was about how to escape it, Canada’s story is about recognizing the inevitability of violence and learning to live with it. The tale, told through 10 situations from Canada’s childhood and teen years on the streets of the South Bronx, is a minutely detailed study of the politics of violence, the power dynamics it creates, the relationships it engenders, how to take it, how to dish it out, and how, in essence, to take control of it and not let it ruin you. The caricatured faces that populate the story show off the innocence, the hatred, and the fear in each person and highlight the simple human truth of the unfortunate message: accepting violence is not the most hopeful prospect, but to many readers, it maybe the most realistic one. Grades 7-12. --Jesse Karp --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (April 9, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807004235
• ISBN-13: 978-0807004234
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid., June 16, 2000

By 

bongo (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America (Paperback)

Mr.Canada grew up in the 60's in the Bronx. In this book he talks about what it was like to live there. He talks about having to prove yourself or face the prospect of getting your ... kicked in the future. You get a VIVID description of what he was up against as a young person. I mean, I grew up a long way away in a much less dangerous place, and I knew exactly what he was getting at. That's a testament to his writing, and the universality of the subject. Mr. Canada recalls one episode where he is walking a few blocks out of his neighborhood, and you get a detailed view of how dangerous this was. Just walking down the street! All I can say against the book is that I would have liked even more of the authors autobiography. Later on in the book, he gets more polemical about what can be done. I agree with what he says, but as far as literary quality goes, that stuff isn't really in the same league as the earlier part of the book. Also, let me say, the author has an excellent, direct writing style, which makes what he has to say that much more powerful.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for everyone concerned with children, May 3, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Farmington, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America (Paperback)

I grew up on the southside of Chicago. While reading this book I could relate to every experience that Mr. Canada relates. The book is easy to read. I think he identifies the problems well. Everyone who cares about children should read this book and help our children.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HEART WRENCHING TRUTH ABOUT URBAN LIFE, March 4, 1998

By 

Guilford B. Fitts (Durham NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America (Paperback)

This is a must read for all who work with children of the inner cities. It should be compulsory for martial artists desiring a road map for teaching conflict resolution to young adults and children. I have never before read a depiction that was so lucid about my growing up in NY City. Cananda describes the tight rope that is walked for us who grow up on or around the mean streets and end up in ivy league schools and corporate environments that leave us still disengaged, alienated and disenfranchised. To be healed we must become healers. Cananda outlines the why and how to make a difference. We need now to heed the call. There are solutions......