Straight Life: The Story Of Art Pepper

* Straight Life demonstrates again and again that Pepper had the ear and memory and interpretative lyricism of a first-rate novelist... He did five years in San Quentin and his descriptions of life there are relentless and brilliant... He had no illusions nor did hehave any remorse or self-pity... He was an eloquent and gifted man. New Yorker * One of the most memorable jazz memoirs. Times * A tough, dizzying, hard and honest book that will haunt anybody who opens it. Down Beat * The most powerful, mind-riveting, brutally honest document I've ever read by an artist. Boston Ledger * A shattering portrait of genius confronted with human weakness... possibly the best memoir ever written by a jazz musician. A story that ranks with The Autobiography of Malcolm X in its direct honesty and power. Kansas City Star