It’s been quite some since I’ve read a book that stopped me in my tracks. You know the feeling when you’re reading and you realize you haven’t taken in a breath in several minutes? That was the feeling I had from cover to cover while experiencing “A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America” by my friend, colleague, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee.
In this important work, Lee manages to accomplish several things. First, he chronicles the incredibly long history of African Americans and guns. From the beginnings of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the shores of America, the gun has been a prevalent force, infiltrating the lives and fortunes of Black people. He then moves us through his time as a journalist, primarily in New Orleans, chronicling gun violence and the effects on individuals, families, communities, and cities more broadly. Not only do we confront those who lose their lives to gun violence, but Lee makes sure we feel the effect of gun violence on the survivors as well. Gun violence is not a zero sum game and those left to piece together their lives (and bodies) after gun violence cannot be forgotten.
Lee then tallies riches generated by both the legal and illegal gun industries. The amount of money made in the legal gun supply chain is astounding and Lee makes sure he connects the dots for the readers from the very beginning of gun manufacturing to the bitter end, when a gun ends up in the wrong hands. Detailing certain tragic events in his own life, Lee weaves his own personal story throughout this book that is truly hard to put down.
This was a difficult book for me to digest, but a necessary (and dare I say mandatory) piece of literature for all. We must not look away from the toll that gun violence takes on our communities. As Lee details, in our current moment, gun violence has a way of entering communities and lives in ways not anticipated. The collective toll this violence takes on our bodies and nervous systems, and literally our hearts, is what Lee seamlessly weaves throughout “A Thousand Ways to Die.”
For anyone who cares about how guns affect our communities and lives, “A Thousand Ways to Die” is essential reading. The book is officially on shelves September 9, but available for pre-order wherever you buy your books. (As always, don’t forget to support your local Black bookstore, either online or in person.)
If you’re interested in hearing Lee discuss his book in his own words, he will be in conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones at the 92nd Street Y on September 10 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of the books “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.