Product Description

Kemp Powers was a good kid, an honors student, raised by a single mother in Brooklyn in the mid-1980s. Like many children, he lived in the sheltered world of his family and neighborhood. He was oblivious to the violence around him.

As a black teenager going to junior high in a white neighborhood, Kemp became acutely aware of the racial tension and violence bubbling up in New York (think Bernard Goetz and Howard Beach and crack cocaine). This, along with an adolescent interest in guns, changed Kemp's life forever.

In 1987, Kemp accidentally shot his best friend. His parents didn't press charges, and Kemp was forgiven by everyone, including the state of New York. But Kemp couldn't forgive himself. He thought about Henry every day and made a promise to never make a mistake again — a promise a child naively made that the adult couldn't keep.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1838287 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
One fine day in April 1988, Powers, a 14-year-old Brooklyn honors student, came home from school with two pals. Showing off a bit—just fooling around, really—he took out one of his mom's handguns and accidentally shot and killed his best friend. Although his friend's family forgave him, Powers never forgave himself. A year of counseling offered little to a young man consumed with guilt; the compassionate silence of his family and friends only helped him suppress the pain. He channeled his energies into his academic work and, later, a successful career in journalism (Forbes, Newsweek, Vibe, Savoy, etc.). Only Powers's baby daughter's sudden crisis—life-threatening febrile seizures—brought him back to thinking about "the Shooting." The baby survived, but her fragility triggered an intense reaction in Powers; he suffered increasingly debilitating anxiety and panic attacks. Medication eventually helped, although his marriage didn't survive. He slid into alcohol, fantasized suicide. By the end of the book, Powers has made a very tentative, fragile peace with his past. There are no polemics, not about gun control or racism or other issues his story could raise. This is simply writing from the heart, and it's powerful. 12 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. FYI:A story-length version of this book appeared in Esquire in December 2002.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Powers, a successful journalist, reaches into his soul to expose a secret that could provoke severe judgment, both personal and societal. As a 14-year-old living in Brooklyn, Powers accidentally shot one of his best friends while playing with a gun. Though he was charged with manslaughter, the victim's parents refused to push for prosecution. Although he has no record, Powers is nonetheless marked by the tragedy, motivated to stay on the straight and narrow so that some good would come of the loss of his friend's life. Yet deep within, Powers suffered from survivor's guilt on two levels: surviving the gunplay when his friend didn't, and surviving the justice system that is so often harsh in its judgment and treatment of youthful black offenders. His guilt and depression impaired his personal and professional life until another tragedy--the 9/11 terrorist attack-- roused him and compelled him to examine and write about his youthful experience. This is a powerful look at a harrowing personal tragedy put in the context of broader social issues and personal atonement. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

What is life about?
Kemp Powers tells his story about an unimaginable moment at 14 when he accidentally killed his best friend in a gun accident. The actual shooting is described in just a few pages, the remainder is Kent Power's life before and after, impacted forever by that moment.

The real pull of the book is the undercurrents about life and fate. There are no answers except the story.

Life Altering/Affirming
I ran across this when I googled Kemp's name years back. I went to Howard with Kemp and just wanted to see what he was up to. I had read a few of his pieces in this or that magazine. I was shocked and excited when I saw he had published a book and this was it. I ordered it and it was awesome.

Memoirs have always been kinda suspect, but his one written by a dude in his 30s, was so genuine in its recollection of events and emotions. it pulled me in, sucked me under, pulled me up, revived me, patted me on my butt and sent on my way with a perspective of - what would I do, how would I feel after a life altering event. How do folks cope after loss? How would I?

By the grace of God go I...

What if one moment defined the rest of your life?
Eloquently written and vividly detailed, the Shooting is a story of a child who make a stupid mistake (as children do) that cost his best friend his life. Although he does not end up doing any jail or juvenile time, he ends up paying for it psychologically for decades. It is obvious that Powers has played out the incident in his mind on an endless loop, going over the "what ifs?" thousands of times.
Also, the imagery of his childhood growing up in New York City is fantastic. I never heard of this book before coming across it on Amazon and buying it because it was listed under used books for just a couple of cents. But it is by far one the best memoirs I've read, and I've read a lot. Even though I may have nothing in common with a black man from Brooklyn, it touched my heart, made me laugh, and made me cry. It took alot of guts to write this book, and I hope Mr. Powers has made peace with that one defining moment all those years ago.