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readingwhilemommying 's review for:
Chain-Gang All-Stars
by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
don't think thought-provoking truly covers how many issues this book touches upon as it presents an imagined future for America and, in relation, reality TV. It's bloody, violent, heart-rending, scary and, frankly, not that unbelievable considering the continued struggles America endures around capitalism, the prison industrial complex, and racism.
Adjei-Brenyah creates a harrowing America where convicts are given the choice to earn their freedom by participating in a gladiator-type program called Chain-Gang All-Stars (named for the "chain" of "links" that form each team). Run by CAPE, the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment group, this program finds convicts fighting each other in to-the-death-matches in an arena. Yet, the "entertainment" doesn't stop there. Cameras follow the "Links" as they shower, eat, talk, have sex, etc. Basically it's the threat of violence 100% of the time--and an adoring audience of millions laps up every bit of it.
At the center are Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Staxxx, two Black women who are Links on the same chain and lovers. Their story is the most compelling. Thurwar, with her trusty hammer, is close to her freedom, but, as you would expect, CAPE's corporate execs would rather amp up the drama by throwing obstacles in her path. Staxxx, the heart of the Chain, tries to inject a bit of humanity into this inhumane world. Their struggles, as well as those of Singer and Simon J. Craft, two Links on another Chain and a Chain Gang protestor named Mari, are the stories that grab your heart and mind and don't let go.
Like so many other stories of today, this one is a study in how the harsh realities of the systems that govern us and the complex people we live alongside negate humanity in favor of greed, ego, and power. Adjei-Brenyah has built a narrative world that is unthinkable—yet possible. He doesn't offer any easy answers to America's ills, but he absolutely encourages us as readers to examine our own participation in them—and challenges us to put humanity over entertainment. I loved this book and highly recommend it.
Adjei-Brenyah creates a harrowing America where convicts are given the choice to earn their freedom by participating in a gladiator-type program called Chain-Gang All-Stars (named for the "chain" of "links" that form each team). Run by CAPE, the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment group, this program finds convicts fighting each other in to-the-death-matches in an arena. Yet, the "entertainment" doesn't stop there. Cameras follow the "Links" as they shower, eat, talk, have sex, etc. Basically it's the threat of violence 100% of the time--and an adoring audience of millions laps up every bit of it.
At the center are Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Staxxx, two Black women who are Links on the same chain and lovers. Their story is the most compelling. Thurwar, with her trusty hammer, is close to her freedom, but, as you would expect, CAPE's corporate execs would rather amp up the drama by throwing obstacles in her path. Staxxx, the heart of the Chain, tries to inject a bit of humanity into this inhumane world. Their struggles, as well as those of Singer and Simon J. Craft, two Links on another Chain and a Chain Gang protestor named Mari, are the stories that grab your heart and mind and don't let go.
Like so many other stories of today, this one is a study in how the harsh realities of the systems that govern us and the complex people we live alongside negate humanity in favor of greed, ego, and power. Adjei-Brenyah has built a narrative world that is unthinkable—yet possible. He doesn't offer any easy answers to America's ills, but he absolutely encourages us as readers to examine our own participation in them—and challenges us to put humanity over entertainment. I loved this book and highly recommend it.