I was first introduced to the name Donald Goines, by reading urban fiction books in middle school that would page homage to him in the foreword of a few novels. I also saw my mom and Aunt passing books of his back and forth in my youth. Throughout my lifetime ive heard his name over and over again from Tupac and some other rapper's. But when I say the title's alone of his books have always intrigued me, though I've never really taken the time until now to actually get to learn about the author himself.

Until now, the 50th year edition of the Donald Goines story is being released and when I say this generation has been missing out on a legend. After hearing his story I am very much compelled to start reading through his catalog. Donald was born from humble beginnings. His family wasn't rich by any means but they tried to provide him with better opportunities in life than the dangers the streets of Detroit, Michigan had to offer a young black man in the 1950's. Like so many before him, Donald became a product of his environment and even serving in the Korean couldn't save him. It was there he became a life long heroin addict. Donald was a Pimp, a theif, an addict, an author, a husband and a father. He was known for being a good man but couldn't stay out of trouble or get that monkey "heroin" off his back. He was an addicted who wrote about his actual experiences in life which truly blows my mind. He was so talented and the literary world lost a great one at such a young age due to Donald's relentless dependence on heroin.
I very much captivated by Donald's story though the audiobook seems to get a little redundant towards the 70% mark. Very detailed of his life from beginning to the end. I felt like some of it could've been shorted as it didn't need to be so drawn out.

Thank you to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Donald Writes No More, The Life of Donald Goines, the Godfather of Street Lit, is a stylistic biography of the author Donald Goines, heralded as one of the greatest writers in the Black lived experience in an era where Black published writers were a rarity (as unfortunately they are still underpublished today).

The biography takes us through an accounting of his life from pre-birth to death and summaries of each of his novels, all wrapped up in just over five hours and narrated in smooth articulation by Leon Nixon. I went in not knowing much about Goines and now I know a lot!

Despite that, I felt this book sort of dragged on, or was sensationalized in parts (obviously we don't know how someone's feeling when something happens unless there's an accounting, or a lot of things that are talked about in this book), but I didn't realize this book was written in 1977 and this is the 50th anniversary (perhaps to go alongside the recordings of Goines' books that Tantor Audio also did?), so it's timely, and mostly, the sad end to a life that moved so fast and so wildly through so much before it petered out.

Thank you to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review.