Buck - M.K. Asante

A coming-of-age story about navigating the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family, Buck shares the story of a generation through one original and riveting
voice. MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: his mother a
dancer, his father a revered professor. But as a teenager, MK was alone
on the streets of North Philadelphia, swept up in a world of drugs, sex,
and violence. MK's memoir is an unforgettable tale of how one
precocious, confused kid educated himself through gangs, rap, mystic
cults, ghetto philosophy, and, eventually, books. It is an inspiring
tribute to the power of literature to heal and redeem us.

Praise for Buck


"A story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style."-Maya Angelou

"In America, we have a tradition of black writers whose autobiographies and memoirs come to define an era. . . . Buck may be this generation's story."-NPR

"The voice of a new generation. . . . You will love nearly everything about Buck."-Essence

"A
virtuoso performance . . . [an] extraordinary page-turner of a memoir .
. . written in a breathless, driving hip-hop prose style that gives it a
tough, contemporary edge."-The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Frequently
brilliant and always engaging . . . It takes great skill to render the
wide variety of characters, male and female, young and old, that
populate a memoir like Buck. Asante [is] at his best when he sets
out into the city of Philadelphia itself. In fact, that city is the
true star of this book. Philly's skateboarders, its street-corner
philosophers and its tattoo artists are all brought vividly to life
here. . . . Asante's memoir will find an eager readership, especially
among young people searching in books for the kind of understanding and
meaning that eludes them in their real-life relationships. . . . A
powerful and captivating book."-Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times

"Remarkable
. . . Asante's prose is a fluid blend of vernacular swagger and tender
poeticism. . . . [He] soaks up James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston and
Walt Whitman like thirsty ground in a heavy rain. Buck grew from that, and it's a bumper crop."-Salon


"Buck is so honest it floats-even while it's so down-to-earth that the reader
feels like an ant peering up from the concrete. It's a powerful book. .
. . Asante is a hip-hop raconteur, a storyteller in the Homeric
tradition, an American, a rhymer, a big-thinker singing a song of
himself. You'll want to listen."-The Buffalo News