You Can
’
t Win
JACK BLACK
ABOUT NABAT
BOOKS
Nabat books is a series dedicated to reprinting forgotten memoirs by various misfits,outsiders, and rebels. Nabat books are based on a few simple propositions:That to be a success under current definition is highly toxic - wealth, fame and power are a poison cocktail; that this era of triumphal capitalism enshrines the mostdreary human pathologies like greed and selfinterest as good and natural; that the“winners” version of reality and history is deeply lame and soul-rotting stuff: Giventhis it follows that the truly interesting and meaningful lives and real adventures areonly to be had on the margins of what Kenneth Rexroth called “the social lie”. It’swith the dropouts, misfits, dissidents, renegades and revolutionaries, against the grain, between the cracks and amongst the enemies of the state that the good stuff can befound. Fortunately there is a mighty underground river of testimony from thedisaffected, a large cache of hidden history, of public secrets overlooked by theoppressive conventional wisdom that Nabat books aims to tap into. A little somethingto set against the crushed hopes, mountains of corpses, and commodification of everything. Actually, we think, is the best thing western civilization has going for itself .
FROM
REVIEWS
OF
THE
FIRST EDITIONMuch of this book is about loneliness. Yet its pages are bracingly companionable. Itis one of the friendliest books ever written. It is a superb piece of autobiography,testimony that cannot be impeached. While it is a statement of an American tragedy, ithas laughter, brevity, style; as a book to pass the time away with, it is in a class withthe best fiction.--Carl Sandburg,
New York World
Nothing half as rewarding has come down the highway of books about thieves, tramps,murderers, bootleggers and crooks in years ... Jack Black’s story combines so manythings: the carefully worked out detail and suspense of a detective story, the sharp eyeand ears of a collector of fellow characters, all very different and alive, the naked,honest, unfevered revelation of the autobiography of a man’s heart and mind.
New Republic
I believe Jack Black has written a remarkable book; it is vivid and picturesque; it is not fiction; it is a book that was needed and it should be widely read.--Clarence Darrow,
New York Herald Tribune
Despite the fascination of these picaresque adventurings, the most nobly exciting thingin the book is the revelation it gives of the unbreakable spirit of Jack Black himself
--The Nation
Authenticity aside, this book is a most efficient thriller; and those readers - and theyare very numerous - who enjoy hairbreadth captures and hairbreadth escapes, courttrials and prison floggings, burglary and sudden death, vividly brought before them onthe printed pages, are here provided with a satisfying and sufficiently gruesome meal.--London
Times Literary Supplement
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
You Can't Win - Jack Black (intro William S. Burroughs)
You Can’t Win is the 1926 roughshod autobiography of Missouri based Jack Black chronicling his life and exploits spent as a hobo and vagabond during the late 19th century to early 20th century in the american…
(More)
1.4K
Reads
14
Readcasts
361
Embed Views
More From This User
Notes
Load more
