An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago
Written and Narrated By: Alex Kotlowitz
Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
No, indeed not the best narration, but wow what heartbreaking and heartfelt stories!
Just to get it out of the way? Kotlowitz isn’t the best narrator, but at least he reads without stumbling. Plus, he’s got a lot of work cut out for him here, following oooooodles of individuals and thankfully doesn’t do vocal juggling to distinguish between them all. Okay? Now on to the book…
If you hate seeing perpetrators of crimes as humans who may’ve had horrific upbringings—stay away from this book. If you think explanations are excuses—stay away from this book. And by all MEANS—if you hate seeing people make poor choices—stay the HECK away from this book!
Cuz in An American Summer, author Alex Kotlowitz spends more than a single summer with the people of Chicago who’ve seen much, suffered much, who’ve endured way more than anyone should. This is about gun violence, and what it means to abandoned communities and abandoned citizens.
The audiobook is cut up in chapters, each spending time with a particular person/family, a particular story. Throughout it, a certain story/individual is revisited as their journey continues on in time.
One reviewer thought of the book as “Pro-thug” and, if you’re so inclined as to feel nothing for WHY a person behaves the way they do, how they came to make poor choices, how they have NO hope and few options, you’ll probably wind up feeling that too. Because one of the stories does indeed follow, say, a young man who committed the greatest of crimes, murder, and of what his life was like before the crime, and of whom he became during his extended stay in prison. That he turned it all around, was deeply sorry for what he’d done, that he went on to work long and hard with difficult cases, with young men and boys who were behaving just as he’d done, might not be enough for you, for some. He DID commit murder, after all.
But I prefer to listen to such a story, one of murder, and have it come away with hopeful ACTIONS (Not just mere words); I mean, what’s the alternative: Murder vs. Murder with hope that others will see what it might be to make better choices, will see what it might be to NOT commit murder themselves, thus sparing the population and families from possible future heartbreak?
But maybe that’s just me. I found the entire book to be compelling, a look at what it is to grow up with PTSD practically from Day One of living in poverty and amongst daily violence that gets waaaaay too close at times (Leaving children with the images of their friends with their brains spilling out of their skulls… PTSD? Heck YES!). I don’t condone the violence, and privileged as I am, I can say that not living around it day to day, not having to live from paycheck to paycheck (I can indeed tuck a bit away for savings at times), has made the thought of seeing someone shot in the gut quite foreign to me, most of what’s in this book is, oh so blessedly, foreign to me.
So I can see the humanity and the tragedy. And I can understand how a young boy, taken away from the environment and adopted into a loving home, would feel at odds with the world, would feel so out of place, would make the most godawful of stupid choices. That he goes on to also turn his life around and to regret what he did is a total relief. But I understand.
There are a lot of unnamed victims in this book; Kotlowitz doesn’t go there; and if you’re firmly, no room for questioning, adamantly into the police as gods, ya might also wanna stay away from this book. Cuz there’s a police shooting here, a coverup, and a young black man dead before his time. And there are suggestions that some money miiiiiight possibly be used for social services rather than for continued militarization of police departments throughout the country. I dunno, I have three instances of cops, never being flagged down but noticing me and coming to my assistance, in my memory bank. And BOY how glad I am, and how fondly I remember such kindness and attention! I just think they suffer a lot, go through their own PTSD.
And Kotlowitz tells us what happens to a person, the hyper vigilance, the irritability, the irrational mood swings, etc. etc. etc. that are part and parcel of PTSD, whether you’re living with terrible violence in Chicago, or you’re a cop trying to hold back the tides of terrible violence.
If you’re up for it, this is an eye-opening book on what it’s like to NOT be privileged, to be forgotten, to have leaders and politicians forsake you on the one hand, demonize you on the other.
All in all, I appreciated the information, appreciated the humanizing.
Plus, Moms rock; throughout this book, it’s the moms who suffer, who struggle, who worry, who sorrow then believe that change can be made. This is not a mother’s day book; no book on life through extreme fear and death through extreme violence and possibly happenstance should be marked for mothers. Still, what they go through, how they believe?
Makes my little faith look pitiful…
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