This book was a good and so true to life for many people. As I read the pages of this book it appears to me that Donald was giving the reader the raw insides of his life. He didn't hold back or try to sugarcoat the details of his life, how he lived, or the things that he had done. This was a great read that I would highly recommend.

My thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing-Holloway House for an advance copy of this reissued biography on a artist who followed the dictum of write what you know, creating a series of works that even 50 years later still speak of the problems America has yet to deal with.

I was first introduced to the works of Donald Goines in a flea market held in Greenwich, England. In the day before luggage cost as must as a plane ticket I had traveled to England with an empty suitcase I planned to fill with vinyl, books, and any other stuff I could find. This flea market was amazing and I had a big pile of sci-fi, history books, and was looking at the mysteries. I found a series Yardie about a Jamaican gang in England, grabbed those, and the guy running things said, I have some Donald Goines to if you like that kind of stuff. I did, and I added two Goines books, Never Die Alone and Black Girl Lost. I had never heard of the author, but I was in a spending mood. On the way to Brighton I started Never Die Alone, and had to read more. There was a rawness to the writing, a knowledge that this is what had to be, an anger, and a resentment. And power. And a fear of what it took to be a man in the world. Coming home I started hunting for more Goines and was surprised at how quickly he published, and how quickly he seemed to disappear. After reading this I know why, and I feel the world lost a remarkable voice. Donald Writes No More: The Life of Donald Goines, the Godfather of Street Lit by Eddie Stone is a look at the life of the man, his experiences, his strength and many weaknesses, and of course the work we remember him by.

The book begins with Donald's father dealing with the racism of the South and coming North to Detroit Michigan, where things were supposed to be better for African Americans. This was only a rumor, but Donald's father saved his money and started a dry cleaning service, one that did well enough for the family to be comfortable. Donald was the second of three children and the only boy. From an early age he was groomed to work with his father, and to make something of himself. Donald had other plans. Donald wanted to make himself on the street, a lure that was too strong to ignore, though he tried. At fifteen Donald lied about his age and joined the Air Force, being sent to Korea during the war. There Donald experienced death at close hand, driving the wounded and the dead to aid stations, and acquiring a heroin habit that lasted the rest of his life. Returning home Donald went again to the streets, earing a good income before making enemies with a man that made him flee Detroit. Petty crimes followed, and a stint in prison made him think about trying his hand at writing. And so he did, writing about the life of a junkie, a life he knew well. Success came, and so did the books, for he had stories to tell, and a habit and family to feed. Everything was looking good, but the Street never lets go of a person, even a person like Donald Goines.

The book was published in the 1970's and is being reissued for the 50th anniversary of Donald Goines death, murdered along with his wife in his home in Detroit for unknown reasons. The book is short, but covers Goines' life quite well, getting into the positive and negative aspects of Goines and does its best to try and rectify them. A man who seemed to respect women, had no problem being a pimp. And a man so strong and smart that cold write taut stories of the Street so quickly, could never escape that world, the drugs and the life. The writing is good, though there are some seventies things that might confuse younger readers. Stone really understood Goines, how he thought, how he wrote, and why Goines never seemed to escape.

A very good look at a writer who really deserves a lot of respect. Goines was a writer of power, able to speak from experience about what he saw, what he did, and what he felt. There was a lot of shame, writing about junkies and what they were willing to do was Goines' way of telling people not to enter this life. One wonders what might have come, what kind of books he could have written. And what was taken far too early. A very biography about an author unfairly forgotten, but well worth the time to explore and learn from. Even today.