A memoir of the writer’s early years in rough Massachusetts neighborhoods. The young Dubus’ father leaves the family for a younger woman, his mother struggles to care for three children, and Andre spends a lot of time on the streets being bullied and beaten. There’s no way out for victims in such places—unless they learn how to strike first and strike hard, which is what the teenage Dubus does, with teeth that don’t unclench for the next decade. The book is a discourse on violence, drawing lines from absolute victimhood to internalized anger and then to life as a writer with a special talent for finding the good in people. At times this stormy memoir is a punch to the throat, but the journey is well worth it. It’s a true story in the best sense of the phrase. Reviewed on April 8, 2021