New York: Random House, (1994.) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's first book, a "shattering and unflinchingly honest autobiography" by this Washington Post reporter. McCall did not fit the stereotypes: he was a smart kid from a caring family in a suburban black working-class neighborhood, but still wound up involved with drugs and gangs, and eventually in prison for armed robbery. This is not just an account of his troubled youth and how he turned his life around, but a look at how young black men feel in a society that does not value them. 404 pp. ISBN: 0-679412689.