White Justice, Black Grief

by David Goines and Donald Goines

Book Overview

Goines' classic novel of prison life and one of the most revealing books ever written about a life banged up against the system. Much of the story is based on the author's personal experiences and it positively bristles with hate.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870671847
• ISBN13: 9780870671845
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Holloway House Publishing Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A real-life look inside the judicial system

In this story, like his others, Donald Goines succeeded in painting a clear, vivid, and lively picture of life behind bars from the black man's point of view during that time. If you really take in the message Goines gets across, you'll see it's much more than a man complaining about this, that, the man not giving him a break, etc. Chester (the main character) was fully aware of his crimes and knew he would be punished. The severity, however, is what got to him, and really set the story in motion. The supporting cast Goines brings is terrific; later on in the story Chester and a friend of his befriend a white inmate, and while everything is cool between the three of them, you can see the tension mount when it's time for two of them to go to the parole board and see about their releases. A story this authentic and true can only be told by someone who's either lived it, or has been around it, and Goines more than qualified to do the job.

BEST FROM THE STREET

Along with Roscoe Beck and Clarence Cooper, Donald Goines wrote books from the perspective of the mean streets in which poverty, racism, and drug addiction, were facts of life. He didn't belong to any literary "schools," he didn't move to Paris where he might have been more appreciated, and most books on African American literature ignore him. But there is a raw truth in what he writes, especially in this, what I consider his finest book. Give the man his due.

Real

The realism of this book is on point. Again Donald Goines brings it and tells it like it is. This story is revealing and is all too familiar to brothers behind bars.

Donald Goines hits you HARD, baby. Gritty, edgy, realistic!

Even though this book is a work of fiction it reads like right off the streets. This is on the real 'do! Has some pretty graphic depictions of prison sex - not like in the movies when they cut away or don't really go into detail - this stuff goes ALL THE WAY, Baby. Whether you call the genre Ghetto Realism or Black Experience - you won't be able to put it down.

White man's Justice Black Man's Grief was a phenomenal book!

Donald Goines really brought the reader into the life of a prison inmate while reading the book. The story was well written, giving facts and situations about the prison system in america as well as telling you a story about two inmate friends and the wicked betrayal that tore the friendship apart. This is definately a must read!!