Review
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"A model of autobiographical writing that
demonstrates how reportage and critical attention to the
complexities of black life – in its intersectional textures – can
be the source for an inimitable memoir…Jackson writes with a keen
attentiveness to the social contexts shaping the lives of his
family, offering nuanced depictions that upend the stereotypes
that often cage us in…Jackson characterizes neither his people
nor himself as perfect, but at the same time he refuses to treat
them as disposable. He exposes their inner lives, then approaches
them with radical love. And to love, as Jackson seems to
understand, is to avoid lying. So he grapples honestly…One of the
most striking facets of Jackson’s book is the way he bares
himself…His book is a testament that revision is not only
possible but necessary…Survival Math makes it clear that
blackness is never a deficit. And yet as Jackson reminds us, even
those of us who are black men must be certain not to rely on a
computational system, steeped in anti-black racist patriarchy, to
save ourselves while harming others.”
—New York Times Book Review
“A shattering memoir of [Jackson's] mother's love affair with
drugs and his own struggle to reconcile the forces of racism,
toxic masculinity, the lure of the hustle, and the 'composite
Pops' who helped raise him."
—O, the Oprah Magazine
“[A] vibrant memoir of race, violence, family, and
manhood…Jackson recognizes there is too much for one conventional
form, and his various storytelling methods imbue the book with an
unpredictable dexterity. It is sharp and unshrinking in
depictions of his life, his relatives (blood kin and otherwise),
and his Pacific Northwest hometown, which serves as both
inescapable character and villain…It’s Jackson’s history, but
it’s also a microcosm of too many black men struggling both
against their worst instincts, and a society that often leaves
them with too few alternatives…His virtuosic wail of a book
reminds us that for a black person in America, it can never be
that easy.”
—Boston Globe
“The sum of Survival Math’s parts is a highly original whole,
one that reflects on the exigencies—over generations—that have
shaped the lives of so many disenfranchised Americans.”
—Paste, Best Books of March 2019
“Jackson tells the story of his family ... with radical love and
honesty."
—New York Times, Editors' Choice
“A vulnerable, sobering look at Jackson’s life and beyond, in all
its tragedies, burdens and faults…Jackson dissects the darker
realities of his hometown [and] his explorations feel strikingly
unguarded.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Gripping and harsh and full of passion and heart."
—Tampa Bay Times
“An expansive chronicle as much as his own personal
story…Jackson’s work is comprehensive and analytical, rather than
inwardly focused, covering topics as wide-ranging as human
trafficking laws and parenting….He submits his own story to the
harshest scrutiny, revealing his own failings as much as those of
the nation that allows this kind of disparity and poverty.
Jackson’s work often juxtaposes the tenets of history or
philosophy against the grim reality of his own life; in this
dichotomy, he exposes the reality of a rigged system ... Survival
Math is remarkably direct and poignant when the author focuses on
the intimacies of his own deepest betrayals and hopes.”
—USA Today
“A timely narrative centered around what it takes to survive in
America.”
—Time.com
“While never shirking from the various harms his family members
inflict on themselves and each other, Jackson consistently writes
about them, and truly all the people we encounter, from a place
of grace…One of the book's many treasures is Jackson's
attentiveness to providing historical context for the forces
shaping his family and the place they call home…Jackson's searing
intelligence is on full display throughout the work, but it is
particularly notable when he takes on the problems of
gentrification, white supremacy, and corporations that gain their
wealth off the bodies of the poor. Equally striking is the
author's unflinching commitment to turn his critical eye inward…a
spellbinding narrative.”
—NPR.org
“A vulnerable, sobering look at Jackson’s life and beyond, in
all its tragedies, burdens and faults…Jackson dissects the darker
realities of his hometown [and] his explorations feel strikingly
unguarded.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
"Exuberant maximalism is [Jackson's] mode ... The detours recall
the hectic narrative nonfiction of the '90s and early aughts, by
writers like Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace."
—The New York Times
"[Survival Math is] dense and rich, alternately blunt and
tender, with references that run the gamut from Snoop Dogg to
Adam Smith ... in recalling his own struggle, what Jackson has
created is a monument to the marginalized—and it's every bit as
harrowing and beautiful as its architect's life."
—Willamette Week
“In prose that is both poetic and brutally honest, Jackson
[explores] his family's story as a lens into the history of his
community. Themes like herhood, addiction, sex work, national
pride, prison, race and violence against women can feel broad and
universal, and Jackson expertly grounds these experiences within
America's legacy, via the inclusion of thoroughly-researched
historical and religious references. And yet Survival Math is
also deeply personal…Jackson powerfully disrupts various
binaries, showing how academic scholarship and accessible writing
can merge, how empathy and accountability can overlap, how self
and social critique are interconnected.”
—Salon.com
“Beyond his own past, Jackson juxtaposes his history with those
of his male relatives to illustrate the hardships of class and
race on a generational level, creating a timely narrative
centered around what it takes to survive in America.”
—Time, 11 New Books to Read this March
"Jackson, the author of the novel The Residue Years, writes about
his own childhood in Portland, Ore., and the entrenched racism
and economic inequality that shaped his community. Along the way,
he interweaves poems and narratives from members of his family.
As Jackson puts it in his author’s note, “Our stories of survival
are inseparable from the ever-fraught history of America.”"
—New York Times, 12 New Books to Watch for in March
"Jackson revisits his early years in a black Portland
neighborhood, telling the stories of his struggling family
members and analyzing the marginalizing cultural forces around
them."
—Entertaintment Weekly, 20 new books to read in March
"Vivid and unflinching ... Mitchell’s memoir in essays
chronicles the struggles of friends and family with drugs,
racism, violence, and hopelessness and puts a face on the
cyclical nature of poverty."
—Boston Globe, Most Anticipated Books of 2019
"An extensive and illuminating look at the city of [Jackson's]
childhood, exploring issues like sex, violence, addiction,
community, and the toll this takes on a person’s life.
—Buzzfeed, Most Anticipated Books of 2019
“This is more than Jackson’s story, and as he traces his
great-grandparents’ exodus from Alabama to Portland and the
subsequent lives of his relatives…he captures the cyclical nature
of poverty and neglect…The prose is a stunning mix of internal
monologue and historical and religious references that he
incorporates to tell his story…Thanks to Jackson’s fresh voice,
this powerful autobiography shines an important light on the
generational problems of America’s oft-forgotten urban
communities.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred
“A dynamic, impressive debut memoir from the Whiting
Award-winning author of The Residue Years (2013)... A potent book
that revels in the author's truthful experiences while
maintaining the jagged-grain, keeping-it-a-100, natural
storytelling that made The Residue Years a modern must-read.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred
“Award-winning novelist Jackson recls his history through an
elegant memoir…one of rigorous self-examination, approaching his
personal story with honesty and poetry…The result is an
portrayal of what makes us human…as much about a writer
struggling to understand life’s jubilations, mistakes, and
losses, as it is a chronicle of a black man’s place in America,
appealing to fans of Kiese Laymon and Ta-Nehisi Coates.”
—Library Journal, starred
“In the second-person vignettes scattered throughout Jackson’s
latest work, close-call scenarios threaten both the lives and
freedom of Jackson’s family members. After escaping death or
incarceration, their frequent refrain is, ‘Praise God!’ Yet the
sense one gets reading this portrait of an African American
family is that, for many black Americans, livelihood rests on
blind chance more than divine intervention …
Product-of-my-environment stories are common; beyond his candid
self-portrayal as a willing-but-reluctant participant, what makes
Jackson’s take on this theme so compelling is his inquisitive and
unflinching investigation of the conditions that shaped him.”|
—Booklist, starred
“This is a mesmerizing book, full of story, truth, pain,
lyricism, humor, and astonishment: the stuff of a difficult life,
fully lived, and masterfully transformed into art."
—Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses and The Golden
House
“Relentlessly clear-eyed and virtuosic, Survival Math offers
revelation after revelation; in the end, it remakes our
understanding of the world and those in it."
—Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing
“Survival Math is the best memoir I’ve read in ages. With
honesty, in, and a tremendous a of heart, Mitchell S.
Jackson takes us deep into the stories that made, ruined, and
saved him. I had the feeling while reading it that I’d never read
anything quite like it before. It’s and wise; poignant
and compassionate; redemptive and raw. You have to read this
beautiful book.”
—Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild
"Survival Math is a compassionate meditation on the human costs
of this country's ongoing war on black lives, and--more
importantly--the methods we employ to endure despite it all.
Mitchell Jackson calls on his singular linguistic gifts to craft
this story of redemption and maturation with honesty and style."
—Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House
“Jackson is no mere stylist. His prose is conceived from fabric
to fit. Penetrating social critique, rigorous self-examination,
epochs and eras attired with a craftsmanship that seems
effortless: By every measure, Survival Math is ahead of the
curve.”
—Greg Pardlo, author of Air Traffic and Digest
“In Survival Math, Mitchell Jackson turns a familial story into
an American one, writing with brutal honesty about himself, and
the men and women who shaped him. With a kind of tenderness not
reserved for people who've suffered, Jackson's Survival Math
explores more than just the highs and lows of his loved ones, he
gets at the texture and nuance, the grit and fight of those
grasping onto to the hope of getting through the worst of it. Put
another way: this book is dope. Awash in the kind of stories that
easily get written as voyeurism, Jackson turns these lives and
his own, into an American epic. This kind of memoir as essay is
Beardenesque, collaging together his family's lives in a way
that, though excavating pain and hurt that easily ruins most,
offers something that's revelatory about the calculus it takes to
keep going. Jackson reminds us to remember the words of Whitman:
Vivas to those who have failed. Written in a prose that's
distinctly his own.”
—Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of Bastards of the Reagan Era and
A Question of Freedom
“In Survival Math, Mitchell Jackson pens a honest, first-hand
account of a family caught up in the game. This book is like no
other in the singular way that Jackson unpacks their lives with a
rare eloquence and intelligence, spinning a tale that is by turns
sad, horrifying, illuminating, and uplifting. In short: a dope
book by a dope writer.”
—Jeffery Renard Allen, author of Song of the Shank and Rails
Under My Back
“Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family tells the story
of a young man and a way of life lived against staggering odds;
Mitchell Jackson shows us his youth in Portland with an
unforgettable mix of sharp humor, wide interrogation, and
indelible tragedy. Jackson’s mesmerizing voice and style draws
you into the survival calculations for millions of American kids
and families, revealing a need-to-know reality for all of
us. With ravenous curiosity Jackson explores what he’s had to
learn—and sometimes unlearn—about what it means to be a man and
what it means to be human, investigating why and how he survived
when many have not.”
—Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black
“Mitchell Jackson’s Survival Math is riveted by his exacting and
tender calculus of each subject’s depth and humanity. Each
hustle, dodge and scramble we witness in these pages is anchored
in the turbulent sea of American history. Jackson’s musings
skillfully illuminate the bloodlines, both inherited and earned,
that pulse through the body of America’s gang-graffitied carceral
state.”
—Tyehimba Jess, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olio
“With the code-sw agility of Toni Cade Bambara and with
the lyric intellect of Albert Murray, Survival Math exhibits
Mitchell Jackson at his full power, shining a light on the path
ahead—indeed, helping us to survive--in one of the most
challenging times in recent American history. This is the salve
we’ve all been searching for when we cover our faces with our
hands after reading the latest headlines. Moving between lyric
essays; centos; and even epistolary history lessons, personal
histories and collective ones, too, there’s never been a more
authentic chronicling of African American culture. Set in
Portland, OR, Survival Math chronicles the history of our country
from the vantage point of Northeast Portland, but this
ain’t Portlandia. This is as real as it gets, and there’s more
love stories—more romantic love, more mother to son love, more
brother to brother love-- than any book should be able to hold,
and yet Jackson has figured out the equation to solve for the X
on which our lives depend.”
—A. Van Jordan, award-winning author of The Cineaste
"If you've read Mitchell S. Jackson, you already know he writes
with a poet’s ear. In Survival Math he foregrounds how powerfully
he writes with a poet's perception. His sentences radiate
empathy. He perceives the lives of hustlers, prisoners, and
ghosts. He speaks to and with and for his people-- which is to
say, your people and my people. Mitchell S. Jackson’s ins
into how black men survive become ins of everyone’s
survival. This book is beautiful and vital."
—Terrance Hayes, MacArthur Fellow and National Book
Award-winning author of To Float in the Space Between
“Survival Math should be praised for many reasons—its literary
integrity, its cinematic pace, its creativity and candor. But
what I find most striking about this work, what I think
distinguishes it, is its heart. As a black man in America, I find
that there is often pressure to use our stories as performance.
To spin them into shaky pedestals where proof of life is
professed for a fee. They are ours but often we do not own them.
This story—this complex history of an American family that could
be representative of many—Jackson, undoubtedly, proves is his. It
beats like a part of him.”
—Jason Reynolds, author of Ghost and Sunny
"Mitchell Jackson’s Survival Math is telling the truth as you’ve
never heard it. These essays are full of heart and doubt and
aching wisdom and fierce beauty. They moved me deeply. This book
is hard to read, and hard to put down. Its voice is voices,
plural. It’s a dirge and a torch song and a family tree and a
confessional booth transcript. It will stay with me for a long
time, and I wouldn’t have it any other way."
—Leslie Jamison, author of The Recovering
“In Survival Math, Mitchell S. Jackson, establishes himself as a
master essayist. The complexity of “Notes” is pastoral yet
poignant. Jackson tells an indisputable universal truth that will
compel you to question everything you thought you knew about life
and living in America. Bravo!”
—Sanderia Faye, author of Mourner’s Bench, winner of the
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
“After reading dozens of books on race, completing thousands of
hours of research and attending countless conferences, I can
confidentially say Mitch Jackson is one of the most important
voices of our generation. You’ll agree after reading Survival
Math, the follow up to his accled Residue Years. Not only is
Survival Math a deeply humanizing page turner, it’s a timely
narrative that gives us a glimpse into the Black America we
rarely encounter in mainstream. Jackson has a gift for crafting
beautiful sentences, storytelling and has brilliantly constructed
the type of book that reminds me of why I fell in love with
language in the first place. I highly recommend!”
—D. Watkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Cook Up
and The Beast Side
“This story is grit and gilded; a space where individual pasts
collide with our collective hopres for America's future."
—Damaris B. Hill, author of A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing
“Some version of all my male kin were there alongside Jackson
and his kin making me see them in a new way. Jackson allows us to
see what it means to be a black man in American and to be at war
with the past and accountable for the future."
—Crystal Wilkinson, author of The Birds of Opulence
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About the Author
----------------
Mitchell S. Jackson’s debut novel won a Whiting
Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His
honors include fellowships from TED, the Lannan Foundation, the
Ford Foundation, PEN, NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts),
and the Center for Fiction. His writing has appeared in The New
York Times Book Review, The Paris Review, The Guardian, Tin
House, and elsewhere. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of
Writing at New York University.
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