White lies and black consequences: Margaret jones and the complex dynamics of the publishing industry

Abstract

Numerous autobiographies have been released over the past two decades documenting contemporary African American and Mexican American urban life, including themes of violent gangbanging, drug hustling, and the inner-city search for economic stability and social recognition. This cycle of contemporary street gang memoirs commenced in 1993 with Sanyika Shakur’s Monster and Luis Rodriguez’s Always Running and often took as its setting Los Angeles (LA), the city that has been dubbed “the gang capital of America” (Serjeant). A relatively recent contribution to this literary trend is Margaret Jones’s Love and Consequences, published 2008; its subtitle is A Memoir of Hope and Survival.