Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America [Paperback]

Nathan McCall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 1995

Examining the complexities of the problems of black youths from an insider's perspective, an African-American journalist recalls his own troubled childhood, his rehabilitation while in prison, and his successful Washington Post career. Reprint. 150,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McCall's autobiography?a seven-week PW bestseller?tracks his trajectory from the streets of Portsmouth, Va., to prison, rehabilitation and a job at the Washington Post; features a new introduction by the author.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-An autobiography that captures the pain, anger, and fierce determination of a black journalist writing today for the Washington Post. McCall's open and honest description of his life as a boy in a black neighborhood in Portsmouth, VA, his participation in violent criminal acts, and his eventual imprisonment for armed robbery seem somehow to be an expression of the rage of so many young people in America's urban areas. While imprisoned, he worked as inmate librarian and was so moved by Richard Wright's books that he became fascinated by the power of words and decided to become a writer. Though he's made a successful career against great odds, he makes it plain that he doesn't feel completely at ease with his peers in the establishment or those on the streets. His difficult story is told in such an immediate and compelling fashion that young people will be caught up in this strong narrative and gain real insight into McCall's growth and change and, thus, contemporary urban issues.
Patricia Noonan, Prince William Public Library, Manassas, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679740708
• ISBN-13: 978-0679740704
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (175 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The author should NOW write about victim compensation., May 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America (Paperback)

I read this book some years ago and was more impressed then than now. Unlike most authors, Mc Call actually admits that he was a an active participant in a gang rape. To actually have such a violent and humiliating crime published in one's own autobiography, the author would have to be very honest, insane or a liar.

As hideous as some parts of this book, I still gave this book to my nieces, daughters and other young Black impressionable females who seem to mindlessly believe anything a Black man tells them. Some months after my adolescent niece read McCall's works, she confessed that she completely broke ties with a young man she had been dating because he showed a lot of Mc Call's tendencies. Some years later, this same young man has impregnated several different women, 3 of which gave birth to his children in the same week (while he was unemployed). Today, he is doing a life sentence in prison for violent crimes.

As disturbing as Mc Call's work is, I have used it for good. Every mother should know where her son is at night. Also, blaming white people for your problems is no reason for McCall commiting the same sins (color casting, rape and robbery).

Finally, if Mc Call committed all the crimes he claims, he should now publish a NEW novel covering his efforts at some form of victim restitution to the individuals, businesses and others he has violated in his past. Well, how about it, Mr McCall?

69 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hypocrisy is alive and well in America, November 20, 2002

By 

Jason (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America (Paperback)

When Mr. McCall finished his book by saying, "It makes me wanna holler and throw up my hands", he almost described my reaction perfectly. Almost. Actually, it makes me wanna holler and throw up.

I forced myself to finish this book despite wanting to throw it aside in disgust many times. Only Mr. McCall's writing skills and my desire to "hear him out" got me to the end of his screed. Why he's garnered so many rave reviews on this site, however, is beyond me and shows what a double standard exists in this country with respect to racial attitudes (and who's allowed to hate and who isn't). I suppose it's because so many are thrilled to have a raw, honest look inside the author's head in order to see what makes a black man tick. The hatred that he spews toward all whites and this country is sickening and hypocritical, though, and will leave a bad taste in your mouth long after you put the book down. (I wonder if a book by David Duke blaming all of society's ills on the black man would be received so well. Yeah, right.)

Mr. McCall wants to be treated a certain way by whites and yet makes no attempt to hide his own loathing of people who are different than him, i.e. "crackers". By his own admission, he found that he came to like some of the folks he worked with once he got past his own prejudice. (Thanks Danny.) At the end of the day, it's really got nothing to do with skin color. If Mr. McCall ever gets a chance to travel to his "homeland", he'll discover places in Africa where slavery still exists but it's black men enslaving other black men. He can then visit Rwanda to see where genocidal acts have been committed by the Tutsis and Hutus against each other. And when he gets back to the States he is welcome to come out to my city where the Crips and the Bloods try to kill each other. Whether it's skin color, tribal affiliation, or gang membership, blind hatred always comes down to one thing - fear and loathing of differences between people.

If someone feels this book deserves a high rating because it's a pretty good read, I can't fault them too much for that. It is. But for those that hold Mr. McCall out to be some noble warrior who is doing his best to rage against the machine, give me a break. I'd have much more respect for the man if he took responsibility for his poor choices and irresponsible actions instead of blaming everything on Whitey. How sad. Perhaps in his next book he can attack the problem of men oppressing and devaluing women. He seems to have a particular expertise in that field. I wonder if that makes him want to holler too?

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Makes Me Wanna Holler Makes Me Wanna Holler, October 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America (Paperback)

This book has some merits, but I find that McCall's relative lack of remorse for participating in gang-bangs and for showing very little evidence of how brutal, how victimizing and how humiliating rape is for women of any race, borders on being unforgivable. McCall seems at times to be downright misogynistic. I've been raped and I don't think that issues of identity can be hierarchized as they are in this text, wherein race trumps gender, every time. What is worse, the perniciousness of racism, or the perniciousness of misogyny and violence against women? We are all multiply complex human beings. Neither gender or race strike me as favorable categories by which to categorize or to conceptualize others. McCall seems to lack the ability to give his victims the respect or attention they deserve. This book made ME wanna holler, and not just because of the undeniably difficult life that black men and women have unjustly faced in America. I personally view McCall as an unrepentant rapist. Admittedly, my own victimization in this respect might, indeed, probably does bias my assessment. However, as I implied above, -- none of this book's merits, and it does have some, can erase my reaction or assuage my utter horror at his lack of sensitivity towards women, generally and towards those whom he victimized, specifically. I had to read this book for a class I was taking and I am not happy with the school for making a mandate of that sort. We also read "Bastard Out of Carolina," by Dorothy Allison, a book that far better and far more clearly depicts the attrocious nature of the indignities persons are subjected to at the hands of others. McCall is, I learned recently, now teaching at my alma mater, which prompted me to add this review to the current "menage." Allison's insights concerning the trauma of victimization and the horrors of which human beings are capable of inflicting on one another offers a superior perspective, not only because her insights are more accessible to the reader, but because she writes with compassion. This is a conclusion that was shared by our entire class, including our fine instructor, whom I miss, wherever she is. Would that they had hired her instead of McCall. Compassion is precisely what "Makes Me Wanna Holler" lacks. Perhaps McCall could learn a thing or two by reading Allison's work. Meanwhile, until I hear that McCall adds "empathy" to his impressive resume, I'll pass on reading any more of his work.