Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives

Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives

Gary Younge

Nation Books (2016)

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Tags: Social Science, Violence in Society, Family & Relationships, Death; Grief; Bereavement, Political Science, Public Policy, Social Policy

Social Sciencettt Violence in Societyttt Family & Relationshipsttt Death; Grief; Bereavementttt Political Sciencettt Public Policyttt Social Policyttt

On an average day in America, seven young people aged nineteen or under will be shot dead. In
Another Day in the Death of America
, award-winning
Guardian
journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of the lives lost during the course of a single day in the United States. It could have been any day, but Younge has chosen November 23, 2013. From Jaiden Dixon (9), shot point-blank by his mother’s ex-boyfriend on his doorstep in Ohio, to Pedro Dado Cortez (16), shot by an enemy gang on a street corner in California, the narrative crisscrosses the country over a period of twenty-four hours to reveal the powerful human stories behind the statistics.

Far from a dry account of gun policy in the United States or a polemic about the dangers of gun violence, the book is a gripping chronicle of an ordinary but deadly day in American life, and a series of character portraits of young people taken from us far too soon and those they left behind. Whether it’s a father’s unspeakable grief over his son who was at the wrong place at the wrong time, a mentor who tries to channel his rage by organizing, or a friend and neighbor who finds strength in faith, the lives lost on that day and the lives left behind become, in Younge’s hands, impossible to ignore, or to forget. What emerges in these pages is a searing portrait of youth, family, and the way that lives can be shattered in an instant on any day in America.

At a time when it has become indisputable that Americans need to rethink their position on guns, this moving narrative work puts a human face—a child’s face—on the "collateral damage" of gun deaths across the country. In his journalism, Younge is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and looking twice where others might look away. There are some things, he argues, that we have come to see as normal, even when they are unacceptable. And gun violence is one of them. A clear-eyed and iconoclastic approach to this contentious issue, this book helps answer the questions so many of us are grappling with, and makes it even harder to just look away.

**

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of October 2016:
Reading about the deaths of children is emotionally crushing, which is exactly why Younge is making us do it. Picking one day in 2013 when ten children were killed by guns in the United States (the average day's toll is seven children), Younge wrenches our focus off cold statistics and turns it to the friends, families and neighborhoods shattered by these deaths. Through interviews with most (though not all) of the victims' families, Younge pieces together a picture of each child as well as the events that led to their deaths. Some killings are accidents; some might have been deliberate but those left behind aren't sure; and some are straight-up murder. The children come from different racial backgrounds, family structures, regions, and ages, making the method of their death the single thing they all have in common. A UK-born
Guardian
columnist who lives in the U.S., Younge brings an outsider's perspective and turns it into one of the book's core strengths as he questions commonly held beliefs about gun violence. I wish Younge explored more solutions in his narrative so that I had something hopeful to hold on to at the end. Instead, he holds true to his purpose of making these dead children far more than statistics, delivering a heart-buckling read that is all the more painful because it’s real.
--Adrian Liang, The Amazon Book Review

Review

“Younge brings a clear-eyed perspective to this fraught topic… A heartrending compendium of the lives of American children taken by guns on an average day. Gripping and eloquent yet challenging in the brutality of its subject, this important book calls for empathy and should be widely read.”
—Library Journal
, Starred Review

“A heart-rending, beautifully crafted book…Important, deeply affecting, and certain to alarm readers who care about the lives of children in a gun-ridden society.”
—Kirkus Reviews
, Starred Review

“[Younge provides] nuance and context to a polarizing issue…The personal touches, however, are most affecting, as Younge pieces together each story from news reports and interviews with friends and family, weaving a tragic narrative of wasted potential.”
—Publishers Weekly

“This is Gary Younge’s masterwork: you will never read news reports about gun violence the same way again. Brilliantly reported, quietly indignant and utterly gripping. A book to be read through tears.”
—Naomi Klein
, author of
This Changes Everything
and
The Shock Doctrine

“Gary Younge’s
Another Day in the Death of America
is a harrowing account of children’s lives cut short by the ubiquity of violence in the United States. Drawn from suburbs and cities of every demographic, these sensitively researched portraits of virtually unknown victims and their grieving families expose the structural ties of race, class, and lack of gun control. Younge’s book completes the picture of what violence looks like in contemporary America, and should be required reading for anyone naming themselves American.”
—Claudia Rankine
, author of
Citizen

"Formidably intelligent and tenacious. A tour de force of regulated passion."
—Martin Amis

“This book is a righteous challenge to the big insanities of American society: gun ubiquity, racism, poverty, and the supine and bland media that taboos genuine discourse on them. It’s all the more daring and subversive for its controlled and mannered tone as it breaks the unwritten law: thou shall not humanize the victims of this ongoing carnage.”
—Irvine Welsh
, author of
Trainspotting

"
Another Day in the Death of America
is the kind of book that instantly changes you. There's no way to walk away from these ten stories of children who were all victims of gun violence on the same day and not feel the heat of anger and despair about the gun culture that creates a seemingly inescapable cycle of violence in America. Gary Younge trains his considerable talents on one day, that could have been any of our bullet and blood filled days, and sketches the lives of the real people who suffer so much for our inability to act. We need to know them."
—Mychal Denzel Smith
, author of
Invisible Man Got The Whole World Watching

"By focusing on just one day, and the ten young American lives cut short on that day by gun violence, Gary Younge delivers a searing, beautifully-written indictment of gun culture in America. An important reminder that the toll of America's ridiculous gun laws results in daily tragedies that go largely unnoticed. An important book.”
—Peter Swanson
, author of
The Kind Worth Killing

ALSO BY GARY YOUNGE

The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream

Who Are We—And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?

Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States

No Place Like Home: A Black Briton’s Journey Through the American South

Copyright © 2016 by Gary Younge

Published by Nation Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC.,

a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc

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New York, NY 10003

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.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Younge, Gary, author.

Title: Another day in the death of America: a chronicle of ten short lives / Gary Younge.

Description: New York: Nation Books, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016014076| ISBN 9781568589763 (eBook) |

Subjects: LCSH: Violence—United States—Case studies. | Violent crimes—United States—Case studies. | Youth and violence—United States—Case studies. | Firearms and crime—United States—Case studies. | Firearms ownership—United States—Case studies. | United States—Social conditions—1980-| BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Violence in Society. | FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Death, Grief, Bereavement. | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Policy.

Classification: LCC HN90.V5 Y675 2016 | DDC 303.60835—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016014076

First Print Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Jaiden, Kenneth, Stanley, Pedro, Tyler,

Edwin, Samuel, Tyshon, Gary, and Gustin—

for who you were and who you might have been.

You already know enough. So do I.

It is not knowledge we lack.

What is missing is the courage to understand

what we know and to draw conclusions.

—S
VEN
L
INDQVIST
,

“Exterminate All the Brutes”

CONTENTS