2011-38 - There are no Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz

38 - There are no Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, 309 pages, Doubleday, 1991
WHY I PICKED IT: Kotlowitz was one of the producers of an awesome documentary called The Interrupters that I saw at HotDocs earlier this year.
ELAPSED TIME: 3 days
RATING: Good

This book is engaging and disturbing... if you want to know what it is to experience growing up in an American ghetto, this book is it.  Kotlowitz follows Lafeyette and Pharoah for three years - hanging out with them and interviewing them and their friends.  From the gang-based gunfire and friends who die young, to their mom who is barely hanging on to her sanity, through to the schools ill equiped to handle educating the kids, forget about supporting their psycho-social needs... these kids are living in a war zone.

Having read this, I think American ghettos are scarily comparable to Internally Displaced Persons camps:
a) Limited access to clean water.
b) Fewer men around... and those that are, are typically dangerous.
c) Dependent on the goodness of a government that oftentimes doesn't trust or respect you.
d) A dangerous place to live, but with few alternatives.

Given that this was written so long ago, I'd be curious to know where these two boys are today.

As a reader, I must admit that this book left something to be desired.   Kotlowitz does a tremendous job in articulating the multitude of ways that these boys are failed by the system - from schools that are ill equipped so educate them, to the welfare people who fail to feed and clothe them, through to the justice system who fail to protect Lafeyette when he's obviously innocent of a crime... Where he fails is in suggesting a path forward, or identifying ways that we may each get involved... although, I guess that's not a bad thing.  Understanding the problem is necessary before we can truly solve it... something to consider.