A Place To Stand - The Making Of A Poet [Paperback]

Jimmy Santiago Baca (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Grove Press; Later Printing edition (2005)
• ASIN: B001B3XFSE
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I will read this book again; it sears into you, December 12, 2004

By 

Milli Thornton "author & writing coach" (Youngstown, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Place to Stand (Paperback)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most powerful and magnetic books I've read., June 9, 2005

By 

The Baffler "Sam" (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Place to Stand (Paperback)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The memoir of a difficult and sometimes violent life, September 11, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet (Hardcover)

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.