No Angels (Puffin Teenage Books S.) - Softcover

Swindells, Robert

3.92

12 ratings by Goodreads

9780141314624: No Angels (Puffin Teenage Books S.)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141314621 ISBN 13: 9780141314624

Publisher: Puffin, 2003

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The stories of two youngsters drawn into crime. Nikki, in the present day, who is living on the streets to escape the advances of her mother's boyfriend, and Nick, living in the middle of the nineteenth century, who is desperately trying to keep hismother and two small sisters from starving. The parallels between the circumstances of the two teenagers, and the reactions/punishments of society, bring it home that the reasons for and the reactions to petty crime have barely changed. The stories end happily with Nikki being able to return home and Nick emigrating to Australia to start a new life.

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Review:

"Magnus Bassey re-creates Malcolm Little's painful pilgrimage from Omaha, Nebraska, where he was born on May 19, 1925, to the Audubon Ballroom in a Harlem theatre in New York City, where he was gunned down on February 21, 1965. His life was cut short at a time when he appeared to be on the threshold of conversion to an inclusive humanism. His tortuous odyssey provides one with a vivid narrative of the nightmarish African American experience. Bassey weaves a compelling story of a human being caught in a web of absurd and perverse social forces in a struggle for his own humanity and self-esteem. Although Bassey gives us an account of the brute material forces at work he attempts to go beyond these and explore the psychological consequences that may provide insights about the making of human self-consciousness in general and African American self-consciousness in particular. Through Malcolm X's speeches, FBI accounts, biographical records, reporters' accounts and other observers of Malcolm X's social landscape, Professor Bassey teases out and uncovers a portrait of a vital human being under adverse conditions in a struggle against the cultural categories that made oppression and racism a modus operandi of everyday life and damaged his humanity and that of those around him. At the end we have a portrait of a Malcolm X in the fullness of his humanity; a Malcolm X who refused to be defined by those alien cultural categories that had visited so much harm on himself and all African Americans, and at the same time had distorted his humanity. Through generous quotations from Malcolm X's speeches Bassey enables us to tap into the sounds and rhythms of four hundred years of pain and suffering arbitrarily imposed on African Americans." - (from the Commendatory Preface) Dr. Anthony Roda, Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York College at Oneonta; "Magnus Bassey's latest book offers a radical reinterpretation of Malcolm X that builds on and goes above and beyond his earlier work, Malcolm X: The Seeker of Justice. This is a well-conceived, philosophically fascinating foray into the uncharted regions of Malcolm X's mind, Africana Studies, and intellectual biography. Bassey, to put it plainly, is at his best, boldly bringing Malcolm X's critical thought to bear on intricate and often-overlooked issues that most Malcolm X scholars have long shied away from. We have reached the point in Malcolm X studies where tired and worn out discussions of Malcolm's views on race and racism can finally and freshly be engaged in light of his evolving views on education, gender, democracy, and war - not to mention his hard-hitting critiques of both capitalism and colonialism. In this sense, Bassey has broken new ground, not simply by challenging the narrow-minded myth of Malcolm as "race man" or, what is worst, "racist," but also by epistemologically opening the discourse on Malcolm X to novel classical and contemporary theoretical perspectives, many of which are internal to and emanate from the history of Africana thought and the new discursive directions of Africana Studies. The reading of Malcolm as a radical humanist is provocative and extremely revealing; the examination of his ideas employing a black existentialist frame of reference is audacious and awe-inspiring; the dense discussion of his views on education and radical democracy is first-rate; and, the exploration of his ever-changing thoughts on women is, without a doubt, path-breaking. In short, this is a book which must be read by anyone who considers him or herself a serious Malcolm X scholar." - Reiland Rabaka, Ph.D., Department of Black Studies, California State University-Long Beach"

About the Author:

Robert Swindells taught for eight years before becoming a full-time writer. His books usually carry a message and are particularly directed at teenagers. He won the Children's Book Award twice - for BROTHER IN THE LAND and ROOM 13 - and the CarnegieMedal for STONE COLD. Robert lives on the Yorkshire Moors.

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