Customer Reviews

Pryor Convictions: and Other Life Sentences

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In chapter 20 of this book Richard Pryor offhandedly calls his comedy style "profane and profound" and inadvertently sums up his life and this book perfectly. This is at various times the most dirtyminded, hilarious, shocking, or downright disturbing autobiography you may ever read, but always with his great dark humor. With a bizarre and damaging childhood in Peoria, Richard Pryor was raised in his grandmother's place of business - which happened to be a whorehouse with all of its shady and unwholesome characters. A violent and painful childhood full of profanity and prejudice came out in Richard's comedy, which was truly groundbreaking in its shocking honesty. He lived a wild life in the spotlight, with addictions and a constant parade of rough women, including five wives that he divorced six times. The wives are hard to keep track of, but Richard is always brutally honest about his attitudes toward women even if it's rarely pretty. He also has a very refreshing outlook on racial matters, as the prejudice that was so damaging failed to ruin his respect for all people of any color. Most of the tail end of the book concerns his nearly born again soul searching about his infamous addictions and latest losing battle with multiple sclerosis. In addition to Richard's straightforward and unforgiving narratives, there are very frequent asides from one of his stage characters, Mudbone, who here is acting as his even more brutally honest alter ego. This gives the book an often jarring schizophrenic character, and surely reflects the true workings of Pryor's dark genius.

PRYOR CONVICTIONS made have changed the names to protect the innocent, but the story that unfolded made up for it. Richard Pryor's life has been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, starting with his childhood, his molestation and rearing in a brothel to his complicated teens and young adulthood, when he felt he needed everyone's approval to live his life. Even as he reached maturity, he still felt he needed to belong to someone and needed to believe in something. It is this pyschological imbalance that drives him to drugs, numerous wives, and even more sexual conquests, but, in the end, he still felt alone and lost. He found out that the only need he couldn't live without was the need to be himself and the power to love who he is. Very candid and explicit, this is the real Richard Pryor, and, for better or worse, this is his story.

This has to be one of the most honest and compelling autobiographies I ever read! I have an immense amount of respect for the intimate details that Rich felt comfortable with sharing with readers about his early life and personal problems. Though some parts dealt with painful issues, the comedic genius he is, he manages to have readers smiling through tears. I found it particularly painful to read his battle with MS, which I watched my mother suffer with, but again, the humor is always there. Richard Pryor is the epitomy of a survivor, not to mention one of the most talented comedians of our time. This was a very inspirational and enjoyable read and I recommend the purchase A.S.A.P.

this man is a legend.he is bigger than comedy.he is everyday life.this book reflects the flaws&the genius of this man.i used to wait until my folks were asleep and sneak his tapes on.they were extremly funny but also thought provoking.it dealt with issues that he was facing.race being the number one factor.and he was very open and straight to the point about it.sex he didn't hold back his thoughts.same with drugs.his work is still imitated&sampled.the man has left a lasting impact on my life and countless others.this is one of the greatest biographys that i've ever read.captivating and honest just like the man.must read.he is the king of comedy for me.

This book, although not recommended for the younger or more sensitive types, tells everything there is to know about Richard Pryor. This book does not set out to make him look like a great man, nor does it set out to make him look like a horrid monster, it presents his choices, good or bad, and allows the reader to draw whatever conclusions he/she wants.

In Pryor Convictions and other life sentences, Richard Pryortells all about his bumpy journey through life. The best thing aboutthis memoir of Mr. Pryor's life is he kept it real. After reading the book, I developed a greater respect for this man because through all the rain and pain he survived, admitted to his mistakes, and moved on. Richard Pryor's work shows that he's talented, but his life proves that he's special.

The mystery of how Richard Franklin Lenox Thomas Pryor III survived and became wildly successful after growing up in a family that made its living by running a prostitution business, in which all of the adult members were participants; being molested by a Catholic Priest at a school that eventually expelled him; becoming a school drop out at the age of fourteen, running through six wives, and a cocaine habit big enough to purchase a hospital in Peru, set himself on fire while free-basing cocaine, having a heart attack, multiple sclerosis, and then bilked out of millions by a dishonest agent, is truly a story worth reading.

This book is Richard Pryor's autobiography told with some of his best jokes serving as punctuation marks. And as was true of his life, this book is as much pathos as it is comedy, and clearly intended to be both.

But here, perhaps for the first time, in its subtext, Pryor reveals the true strength of his character and his humanity: it is in his uncompromising ability not to accept the racist reality that he found himself engulfed in, at face value. To Pryor not only was the racist reality "not real" and thus not to be trusted, it also was not universal, not legitimate, nor the last word about the humanity of his own private life and environment, or by extension, of this nation.

Even though the racist reality of Peoria, Illinois, tried to set limits for Pryor, he kept finding ways to jump over its hurdles. Until his death, with every fiber of his body, Pryor fought everyday of his life against allowing it to define who he was. In doing so, like his hero, Muhammad Ali, he transcended it and America's brutally racist system, and in the process, became larger than life, and larger than his own tragic circumstances. As this book demonstrates, he fought a valiant fight, but in the end, it took its expected toll: The battle destroyed him from the inside out.

This book, like the movie of his life produced by him, "Jo Jo Dancer," traces the evolution of Pryor's character development across his life journey. It is sobering only in its uncompromising honesty.

Five Stars

In the age of ham-fisted A. Goldman biographies and non-funny comedians getting publishing deals (that Faust would have refused) to write self-indulgent tripe, this book is a bit of an anomaly. It is funny and profound at the same time.

It is also--for the purists--somewhat incomplete, as far as detailed information on various albums' bits, and I've read the galley proofs, which aren't that much more different from the finished product. But it's just as flawed as the man who wrote it, and the real truth is that we should all be grateful he was still around to do so.

It has interspersed some of his old bits with Mudbone as the occasional narrator to give it some balance. It's honest and reasonably raw, and it is as they say, a page-turner.

I laughed and cried for my brother. Richard is a genius in every sense of the word. It makes me wonder what funny things are locked inside of him now and unable to get out.

Richard Pryor's troubled life and his willingness to discuss it in print, on stage and in film is a wonderful opportunity for the public to see a man who longs to be loved and accepted. This book shows that Richard Pryor has a vulnerable side, a tender side and even a spiritual side. His humor has been crude and tasteless over the years, but his heart is made of gold. A warm man, a gentle man, a loving man, who truly deserves peace.