I Read Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s ‘Chain-Gang All-Stars’.
I don’t think I find many books that are must reads. As often as I enjoy what I find the time to read, as much as I tend to curate the books I want to read with a little bit more care, I don’t think I find as many books that I want to pass out to others the same way I will with this one. Chain-Gang All Stars is a must. read. title.
From the highest and most obtuse perspective, this is an exciting book that shoves our face directly into the “action sports” universe which feels no different than the type of culture we see in the WWE or even the UFC world. The People, the performers, are sculpted bodies with over-the-top personalities sold to Us at large. They are sexually symbolic heroes and villains, massively scripted and written for Us to not only foam at the mouth for, to be constantly want more of, but also to overanalyze, to overspeculate, to dream about, to role model ourselves after. To make us indulge in the vulgar fantasy that we are at the same time WITH them, we ARE them, we BECOME them, and as much as we are excited to see them, we are sold the thought that THEY are just as excited to see us. Every time these Action Sports Performers look into the camera, they are making eye-contact with us. We are buying, dollar by dollar, weekend by weekend, the belief that they love us.
They don’t.
In this world, the violence doesn’t end in brutal and harsh gymnastics, blunt acrobatics. It doesn’t end in knockout blows and concussions and torn ACLs. In the world of Chain-Gang, every fight ends in death. Skull smashed, intestines dangled, blood evacuated death. The All Stars live because they kill. They kill because they want to live.
Digging down another level, possibly the most important level, this is a book lush with love. Romantic love, interpersonal love, familial love, self love. The tenderness shown in the pockets of people is not exaggerated to a degree where it’s beyond belief. Instead, Adjei-Brenyah is able to make the connections between these characters feel organic. Sometimes the heat of their exchanges is hushed and interrupted and slid in between solemn moments. Laughter in the worst times, sadness in the joyful. And that’s what feels so authentic, so often. Lovers don’t long for each other in yearning moments looking out over open sky here. Here, they appreciate the morning breath, they wince when the other feels pain in a stretch, they watch each other from distance and feel their skin against one another in phantom tangibility. Brothers lift each other up, cohorts quietly conspire to lift up the group. When two opposite people struggle to connect but are forced to lean on each other to survive, the love of a mentorship is found.
The strength that these characters find in their isolation is profound. And the author is able to talk about what it means to love with your whole heart, your whole self, even when the vice is tightened to a noose. The world of Chain-Gang is a foul one, a world where violence is entertainment and those who feel it most are the ones whose lives are the grains of sand in the televised hourglass. The mere fact that this book is written from and about such a dark place and the portraits of the deepest, richest and most earnest levels of Love are on display here is a stroke of genius. While I loved just about every character in this book, what I loved more is the fountain of affection, endearment and devotion that they felt for each other.
At its core, the very gears that make this book tick, the very quiet and very loud part of this book is the spotlight it puts on the racial injustices and the broken system of incarceration we have in this country. In whatever broken future this is (as well as whatever broken present we are currently in), the magnifying glass that’s put on the injustice that is laid out for black men, black women, the mentally unwell, those without voices, those without choices, and those who don’t Fit the Arbitrary Ideal of Those In Power is stark. Read 50, read 10, read 1 page of this book and you will find that something is deeply wrong about the way that We are doling out punishment for certain individuals. As broken as the world is in this book, it is an accurate reflection of the world we are living in to this day. If I were to tell you to read this book for any reason, it would be to shed a light on what’s happening out here while you’re sleeping. Shit, it’s happening while you’re awake too.
Everyone who dies in this book gets an asterisk. Everyone has a story. Everyone is a person before, during and after their discretions. Where life is precious, life is precious.
This book is written in such a yin and yang voice. There’s joy in it. There’s love. There’s insight. But I think the rage that simmers below all of it is in every drop of ink that traces these words. And it’s a rage that is justified. A rage that glows. A pinprick of light to run towards.
A rage that burns when in the smallest font, buried on the bottom of a page, the author nudged me to read about George Junius Stinney Jr. A rage that I had to match, but only from afar.
Hard to fathom a way to recommend this book more. To you, to everyone. Read this. Share this.
