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Ghosts of the BX:
Ready to read a book that is going to grab you right from the intro with money, shadiness, and all out betrayal?...Ghosts of the BX is definitely one for you! The story keeps you interested from beginning to end. The story takes many twists and turns right up to an end you don't expect. You name it, its happening in this book. You would think the good guys would win... But not in this one.
318 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2012
About the author
Adonis
289 books215 followersAdonis was born Ali Ahmed Said in the village of Al Qassabin in Syria, in 1930, to a family of farmers, the oldest of six children. At the age of nineteen, he adopted the name Adonis (also spelled Adunis), after the Greek god of fertility, with the hopes that the new name would result in newspaper publication of his poems.
Although his family could not afford to send Adonis to school, his father taught him to read poetry and the Qu'ran, and memorize poems while he worked in the fields. When he was fourteen, Adonis read a poem to the president of Syria who was visiting a nearby town. The impressed president offered to grant a request, to which the young Adonis responded that he wanted to attend school. The president quickly made arrangements for Adonis to attend a French-run high school, after which he studied philosophy at Damascus University.
In 1956, after a year-long imprisonment for political activities, Adonis fled Syria for Beirut, Lebanon. He joined a vibrant community of artists, writers, and exiles in Beirut, and co-founded and edited Sh'ir, and later Muwaqaf, both progressive journals of poetry and politics. He studied at St. Joseph University in Beirut and obtained his Doctorat d'Etat in 1973.
Considered one of the Arab world's greatest living poets, Adonis is the author of numerous collections, including Mihyar of Damascus (BOA Editions, 2008), A Time Between Ashes and Roses (Syracuse University Press, 2004); If Only the Sea Could Sleep (2003); The Pages of Day and Night (2001); Transformations of the Lover (1982); The Book of the Five Poems (1980); The Blood of Adonis (1971), winner of the Syria-Lebanon Award of the International Poetry Forum; Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (1961), Leaves in the Wind (1958), and First Poems (1957). He is also an essayist, an editor of anthologies, a theoretician of poetics, and the translator of several works from French into Arabic.
Over the course of his career, Adonis has fearlessly experimented with form and content, pioneering the prose poem in Arabic, and taking a influential, and sometimes controversial role in Arab modernism. In a 2002 interview in the New York Times, Adonis declared: '"There is no more culture in the Arab world. It's finished. Culturally speaking, we are a part of Western culture, but only as consumers, not as creators."
Adonis's awards and honors include the first ever International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award, the Syria-Lebanon Best Poet Award, and the Highest Award of the International Poem Biennial in Brussels. He was elected as Stephen Mallarme Academy Member in Paris in 1983. He has taught at the Lebanese University as a professor of Arabic literature, at Damascus University, and at the Sorbonne. He has been a Lebanese citizen since 1961 and currently lives in Paris.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...
Although his family could not afford to send Adonis to school, his father taught him to read poetry and the Qu'ran, and memorize poems while he worked in the fields. When he was fourteen, Adonis read a poem to the president of Syria who was visiting a nearby town. The impressed president offered to grant a request, to which the young Adonis responded that he wanted to attend school. The president quickly made arrangements for Adonis to attend a French-run high school, after which he studied philosophy at Damascus University.
In 1956, after a year-long imprisonment for political activities, Adonis fled Syria for Beirut, Lebanon. He joined a vibrant community of artists, writers, and exiles in Beirut, and co-founded and edited Sh'ir, and later Muwaqaf, both progressive journals of poetry and politics. He studied at St. Joseph University in Beirut and obtained his Doctorat d'Etat in 1973.
Considered one of the Arab world's greatest living poets, Adonis is the author of numerous collections, including Mihyar of Damascus (BOA Editions, 2008), A Time Between Ashes and Roses (Syracuse University Press, 2004); If Only the Sea Could Sleep (2003); The Pages of Day and Night (2001); Transformations of the Lover (1982); The Book of the Five Poems (1980); The Blood of Adonis (1971), winner of the Syria-Lebanon Award of the International Poetry Forum; Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (1961), Leaves in the Wind (1958), and First Poems (1957). He is also an essayist, an editor of anthologies, a theoretician of poetics, and the translator of several works from French into Arabic.
Over the course of his career, Adonis has fearlessly experimented with form and content, pioneering the prose poem in Arabic, and taking a influential, and sometimes controversial role in Arab modernism. In a 2002 interview in the New York Times, Adonis declared: '"There is no more culture in the Arab world. It's finished. Culturally speaking, we are a part of Western culture, but only as consumers, not as creators."
Adonis's awards and honors include the first ever International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award, the Syria-Lebanon Best Poet Award, and the Highest Award of the International Poem Biennial in Brussels. He was elected as Stephen Mallarme Academy Member in Paris in 1983. He has taught at the Lebanese University as a professor of Arabic literature, at Damascus University, and at the Sorbonne. He has been a Lebanese citizen since 1961 and currently lives in Paris.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 26, 2012
Street gangs, drug dealers and stick up kids coupled with violence and lust, murder and lies made this a fantastic page turner with one shocking twist at the end.
In the very beginning we meet a gang member from Washington Avenue Projects, named Tior, his hood, his boys HIS game. When the game changes for him the readers are left with a dropped jaw.
The DDB (DO Dem Boys) crew whose HNIC (head nucca in charge) Blast have been sticking up drug dealers for the last four years. But as we know the game gets old and dreams get bigger, leaving Blast desperate or on top. Lace (Lawson) has a small crew on Webster Avenue and they move heavy weight kilos/ bricks to be more specific. Henny (Henry) who introduced Lace to the game walks away to live a “normal life” and suggest that Lace does the same. But the glamour of the streets and all that comes with it makes Lace believe he has time.
But a night on the town shows him very quickly that his time might have run out. One by one gang member’s fall, drug dealers leave the game by force or situation. Family members turn on one another and the ghost of the Bronx keep on creeping.
There is a claim on the back of the book which asks the reader if he/she is “ready to read a book that is going to grab you right from the intro with money, shadiness, and all out betrayal”? Well I need to tell you the author got it right from the beginning I was hooked. The characters were written so well even the bad boys and girls will become your friends and at one point in time the reader is confused at who to root for.
Adonis did an EXCELLENT job with this book its theme jumps from the pages; for every action there is a recourse either today or tomorrow believe its coming and right after so are the ghost.
A complimentary copy of the book was provided by the author.
Missy
In the very beginning we meet a gang member from Washington Avenue Projects, named Tior, his hood, his boys HIS game. When the game changes for him the readers are left with a dropped jaw.
The DDB (DO Dem Boys) crew whose HNIC (head nucca in charge) Blast have been sticking up drug dealers for the last four years. But as we know the game gets old and dreams get bigger, leaving Blast desperate or on top. Lace (Lawson) has a small crew on Webster Avenue and they move heavy weight kilos/ bricks to be more specific. Henny (Henry) who introduced Lace to the game walks away to live a “normal life” and suggest that Lace does the same. But the glamour of the streets and all that comes with it makes Lace believe he has time.
But a night on the town shows him very quickly that his time might have run out. One by one gang member’s fall, drug dealers leave the game by force or situation. Family members turn on one another and the ghost of the Bronx keep on creeping.
There is a claim on the back of the book which asks the reader if he/she is “ready to read a book that is going to grab you right from the intro with money, shadiness, and all out betrayal”? Well I need to tell you the author got it right from the beginning I was hooked. The characters were written so well even the bad boys and girls will become your friends and at one point in time the reader is confused at who to root for.
Adonis did an EXCELLENT job with this book its theme jumps from the pages; for every action there is a recourse either today or tomorrow believe its coming and right after so are the ghost.
A complimentary copy of the book was provided by the author.
Missy
June 21, 2012
Haunted By The Past
I was intrigued with the title. I am always willing to read a book about my hometown; I love the Bronx. It’s always a pleasure to stroll down memory lane and boy, does this author take me back.
Webster project is the back drop and everyone wants to leave the project and make a better life for themselves. Some make it and some don't while the drug trade is the easiest way to make it happen. That brings out the enemies, frienemies, stick up kids and jealous ones.
The character development is good. The relationships he shows between them is real. Lace the main character had some issues and his baby mother was a breed of her own. Henny was once king of the Bx and when he steps back in the Bx, enemies come out too. Things change as Blast was once the kid being bullied now he is feared as the neighborhood stick up kid. Blast is insanely jealous of Henny and Lace. Friendships and relationships are pushed to the limit. Will the outcome be good or bad?
No flagrant editing issues, coupled with the fact that this is a standalone book makes this a winner. This novel has me looking for this author’s next novel.
SiStar Tea
ARC Book Club Inc.
4 Star rating
June 2012
I was intrigued with the title. I am always willing to read a book about my hometown; I love the Bronx. It’s always a pleasure to stroll down memory lane and boy, does this author take me back.
Webster project is the back drop and everyone wants to leave the project and make a better life for themselves. Some make it and some don't while the drug trade is the easiest way to make it happen. That brings out the enemies, frienemies, stick up kids and jealous ones.
The character development is good. The relationships he shows between them is real. Lace the main character had some issues and his baby mother was a breed of her own. Henny was once king of the Bx and when he steps back in the Bx, enemies come out too. Things change as Blast was once the kid being bullied now he is feared as the neighborhood stick up kid. Blast is insanely jealous of Henny and Lace. Friendships and relationships are pushed to the limit. Will the outcome be good or bad?
No flagrant editing issues, coupled with the fact that this is a standalone book makes this a winner. This novel has me looking for this author’s next novel.
SiStar Tea
ARC Book Club Inc.
4 Star rating
June 2012
April 25, 2013
This book was very good.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews