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Maybe someday
33
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
52/100Critics
13/100Scholars
Author:
Ben Westhoff
Publisher:
Hachette Books
Date:
May 24, 2022
In 2005, soon after Ben Westhoff moved to St. Louis, he joined the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and was paired with Jorell Cleveland. The two instantly connected. Ben and Jorell formed a bond stronger than nearly any other in their lives. In the summer of 2016, Jorell was shot at point blank range in broad daylight in the middle of the street, yet no one was charged in his death. Ben grappled with mourning Jorell, but also with a feeling of responsibility. As Jorell's mentor, what could he have done differently? As a journalist, he had reported on gang life, interviewed crime kingpins, and even infiltrated drug labs in China. But now, he was investigating the life and death of someone he knew personally and examining what he did and did not know about his friend. Learning the truth about Jorell and the man who killed him required Ben to uncover a heartbreaking cycle of poverty, poor education, drug trafficking, and violence.
What The Reviewers Say
... a memoir, a double bildungsroman, and a murder mystery. By combining these forms, it goes deeper than any one of them could.
An examination of gun violence, trauma, and the communities they indelibly mark, Little Brother is an affecting tribute to Jorell and other young Black men whose lives are cut devastatingly short..
Employing his journalistic skills and connections to solve the crime, the author exposes the failures of the justice system when it comes to young Black men. The narrative struggles at times with Westoff’s inability to decenter himself from Cleveland’s lived experience.
Thought-provoking.
