Alexander, Donnell. Ghetto Celebrity: Searching for my Father in Me. New York; Crown Publishers, 2003.
Looking at the blurbs on the back of Ghetto Celebrity, you know Alexander’s biography made the rounds at the office of McSweeney’s around the turn of the century. With praise from Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, and Neal Pollack and a major publisher, Ghetto Celebrity is not your typical growing-up-in-Sandusky story.
For the most part, Ghetto Celebrity hits the mark as a biography and as a literary work of higher ambition. Though there are several post-modern elements in Alexander’s storytelling — at one point, the story is told in crude comic book sketches — Ghetto Celebrity is for the most part a linear story, starting with his parents courtship and following his life and career. The author is very frank about his life, mixing free-flowing street language with more conservative styles, in telling everything. Alexander has broken his story into three acts. And, I will give the author credit that each act has a distinct tone and feel.
Act 1 (Sown), telling his parents story and his life growing up in Sandusky, was by far my favorite. The writing is very lyrical (I constantly found myself re-reading lines for [a more fuller] understanding). Alexander’s father was not a nice guy and some really awful things happened to his mother early in the author’s life. At the same time, light-hearted scenes from Alexander’s childhood blend in nicely to portray life as it was.
Sandusky, or Santown, does not receive glowing praise in Ghetto Celebrity. But, that said, Alexander writing had a nostalgia for that place-you-are-stuck growing up. For those who know the area, Alexander paints vivid pictures of streets and business in the east and south side of Sandusky in the late 70s, early 80s. He also offers a rare account of working class African-American experience in the vacation/factory town.
A stand-alone abode in the aluminum-siding petri dishes of Sunnyside or Larchmont marked the highest aspiration a working class black could have. If you had some sort of degree, you probably weren’t from Santown. (34)
The second act (Embrace) details his move to California (Sacramento to Fresno to Chico to San Francisco to Los Angeles) and his burgeoning writing career. It is here that Alexander finds great humor in the looking back at the cocky/bravado attitudes he had as a young man. There are several out-of-control stories told that should make anyone cringe and/or chuckle. My personal favorite is a tale of the band several of his journalism friends formed and received billing at a show only to have things fall apart.
The story of Alexander’s father reaches a logical conclusion at the end of Act 2. (The third act is post-embrace.) Growing up, his father was just some guy around town. He was the ghetto celebrity and an enigma to the author. When Alexander’s son is born, he decides to learn more about his father, who spent his life as a pimp, a bandleader, and did some time in prison. Though his father’s story and the author’s attempts to connect with it are quit interesting, but despite the subtitle, I think Ghetto Celebrity has much more going on in talking about youth of a certain age, race, and self-actualization.
I found the third act (Repudiation) to be the least interesting (And, not just from a Ohio blog standpoint). Alexander moves to New York and becomes a national writer (with ESPN Magazine). The writing in this act is the more standard and the storyline kind of drags. I guess as a grown-up life involves complaining about your job and having marital trouble. It could just be me.
I am glad Alexander wrote this biography. He is a large talent who has told a stylized coming-of-age story, which just happen to be based in Sandusky. We all grow up somewhere, sometimes time and location are captured by wonderful chance. I know there are other examples, but think of Thomas Wolfe and Asheville, North Carolina.
Filed under: Biographies, Sandusky
