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An American Demon

A Memoir

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

An American Demon is Jack Grisham’s story of depravity and redemption, terror and spiritual deliverance. While Grisham is best known as the raucous and provocative front man of the pioneer hardcore punk band TSOL (True Sounds of Liberty), his writing and true life experiences are physically and psychologically more complex, unsettling, and violent than those of Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk.

Eloquently disregarding the prefabricated formulas of the drunk-to-sober, bad-to-good tale, this is an entirely new kind of life lesson: summoned through both God and demons, while settling within eighties hardcore punk culture and its radical-to-the-core (and most assuredly non-evangelical) parables, Grisham leads us, cleverly, gorgeously, between temporal violence and bigger-picture spirituality toward something very much like a path to salvation and enlightenment. An American Demon flourishes on both extremes, as a scary hardcore punk memoir and as a valuable message to souls navigating through an overly materialistic and woefully self-absorbed “me first” modern society.

An American Demon conveys anger and truth within the perfect setting, using a youth rebellion that changed the world to open doors for this level of brash destruction. Told from the point of view of a seminal member of the American Punk movement — doused in violence, rebellion, alcoholism, drug abuse, and ending with beautiful lessons of sobriety and absolution — this book is as harrowing and life-affirming as anything you’re ever going to read.

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    • Library Journal

      February 15, 2011

      As front man of the influential punk outfit T.S.O.L., Grisham blazed a trail of violence, sex, and substance abuse across Southern California in the early 1980s. According to this memoir, he was just doing what comes naturally to demons. Neither a band history nor a straight autobiography, his book is concerned primarily with the emotional and physical torment he inflicted on friends, strangers, and himself from birth until his vow of sobriety in 1989. Fictionalized elements like supernatural visions and conversations with the "Not-Quite-God" of demonkind are useful; their presence allows readers to believe that other horrifying episodes here may have been similarly embellished. VERDICT Grisham's demon persona somehow fails to convey the charisma that allowed him to get away with his evil acts. After 300 pages of them, readers will be craving punishment rather than redemption for him. The abrupt conclusion, though, provides little of either. It may appeal to fans of Chuck Palahniuk, West Coast punk, and nihilism.--Neil Derksen, Gwinnett Cty. P.L., Lawrenceville, GA

      Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      April 15, 2011
      In this disturbingly profane yet strangely mesmerizing memoir, punk musician and political activist Grisham describes a troubled childhood and adolescence on the streets of Long Beach, California. Curiously, Grisham refers to himself as a demon, thereby intentionally distancing himself and perhaps readers, too, from the rest of humanity. This separating mechanism accounts for the books strangeness, the fact that he seems proud that no one can touch him emotionally and equally pleased that he is immune to normal human feelings. He discusses his self-mutilation, addiction to alcohol and drugs, and introduction to punk rock as well as his proclivity for violence. He writes about his hardcore punk band, TSOL (True Sounds of Liberty), which became notorious for its controversial lyrics and aggressive, in-your-face performance style. By the end of this rollicking memoir, the birth of his daughter has softened him enough so that he grudgingly admits to having been struck human. Readers interested in punk music will be fascinated by Grishams tale, but be forewarned, it is not for the faint-hearted.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

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Languages

  • English

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