Customer Reviews

Ghetto Celebrity: Searching for My Father in Me

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

We are living in a time of lies. White lies, absurd lies, blatant lies, atrocious lies, I have had it with lies. The 80's look tame and "I am not a crook" Nixon is a altar boy in comparison. Donnell Alexander tells the truth with all of it's stankness. Donnell wrote about all of that we don't want to admit; our hatred of our bosses, our infidelities, our dysfuctional families, our drug use, our arrogance. It feels good to read honesty. This country needs hundreds more Ghetto Celebrities.

Whoa. This book is about much more than just Donnell Alexander.It's about a child of a unsupported single mother. An awkward adolescent boy trying to be cool (knowing he's not). A young writer trying to give himself the chance to succeed and really struggling with self discipline. And I empathised with all of him. I give the author MAJOR points for his frank descriptions of his sexual conquests. They felt true, lame, sorta selfish and very, very real. I love this uncovering of dimensions and histories of himself and those around him brave...not knowing or caring whether they look good to us or not. Maybe people will respond to the street-cred, hipness but I felt moved by the vulnerability underneath. I don't feel that often from any non-fiction I've read by a man of his age or background. If I had one complaint it's that the book jumps around a bit too much for my taste. I would've been happy to sink into any one of the stories going on for longer. I can't wait for this author's NEXT book.

If you love great writing, this is your book. I read a variety of authors, including Dostoevsky, Wallace Stegner, Maya Angelou, Anne Lamott, and Arundhati Roy. Ghetto Celebrity is a unique memoir that's about much more than a single life. Among other things, it's about growing up and about race in America. This is a very honest view, told with incredible style, pain and humor. One of the best books I've read in years.

some writers write about topics outside of their biography. some writers write books about their biography, and somehow make it about all of us.
In 'Ghetto Celebrity', the author donnell alexander pulled it off. he atomizes seemingly every person and institution that's held relevance in his 35 years from his parents in Cleveland to his employers in journalism from small town newspapers to glossy national magazine to his wife and mother of his two boys. Everyone pissed him at one time or the other, and he lets them have it in lovingly cathartic prose. If you're a private or shy person, alexander's act of naked extroversion is amazing to read. he seems to empty out his diary in this book, but he kept his sense of humor about his throughout.
alexander has issues with everyone, but mostly with himself. 'ghetto celebrity' is a meditation on self-celebration. the lesson appears to be you can't get to self-celebration without looking candidly at the things you hate that rub you wrong about life.

Desslines

Ghetto Celebrity is brutally honest, funny, insightful writing in the tradition of Henry Miller, Norman Mailer and a host of other heavyweights. Alexander challenges you, rocks you and makes you laugh and cry out loud. Buy this book. It's one helluva ride....

Take a good swing at Donnell Alexander. He deserves it sometimes for pretending to be the hippest dude on the block but the best kept secret is that there's a complexity here that goes beyond the sex, the dope, and the hip-hop pose. Sure he tried to screw up his life but somehow the gods allowed him to survive and become a writer worth something. At the end of the day he's still someone I'd want to have a beer with.

The brutal honesty of Ghetto Celebrity, while shocking to average readers, is not shocking to those who know the author. The man who dared to write "Are Black People Cooler that White People?" has turned his uncompromising eye on himself, his life as an alternative writer and his coming to terms with his father. The result is a refreshingly rugged, raw and real biography that is thigh-slapping funny. Ghetto Celebrity is THE book to read this year.

You've got to read this book. Not because it's all that good, but, as a black woman, we've (black men and women) got to find out what's wrong with SOME of our men. Donnell Alexander is the problem. Now, i'm not suggesting he be killed or even harmed, just examined. So buy his book and wonder... what happened.

My only question is who is Donnell Alexander, and why am I supposed to care about him? He portrays himself as a celebrity, however this celebrity is in his own mind. This book is a vulgar memoir that no one but himself and his friends, if he still has any after this book, could care about! After reading this book, it's no wonder his marriage disintegrated!