Sin City

The book was an accurate description of life in an ever changing low socioeconomic neighborhood and school.

I loved this book. I could not put it down. I feel about principals and teachers the same way I feel about police officers, firemen and prison guards. Why anyone would subject themselves to the amount of abuse and BS as these folks, I don't know. It can't be the money. I thank God for them though. Where would we be without these often self-less, more often, underpaid folks who work in public schools in any town USA. Mr. Reynolds is a gifted story teller. If you have a child in public school, or even if you don't, this is a very interesting book.

This is a great read. I'm glad I read it prior to working in some of the most challenging schools in my district. G. W. Reynolds III fantastically described his reality as a principal in one of the toughest schools in Jacksonville, Florida.I highly recommend this book to all teachers.

I was in the school... My story is in this book. I bought the book to read. I thought at first wow, Look at what my principle done. He wrote a book about where I grew up. I start at the first page. I get into the book and next thing I know, There is it. My brother death!! Which would not have been a big deal if the lies where not in there. He made alot of stuff up. The stuff with my family in this book are NOT true. Plus to use my brothers death to make money is just down right sick. I have been deeply hurt by what was wrote in this book and the way he made things out to be. Very unhappy That someone who make stuff up and use a death of a child/ student to make money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used this a basis for lessons in my classroom. The insights formed a great catalyst to discussion and my 16-17 year old students embraced the book whole-heartedly.

The product arrived a lot sooner than expected and was in perfect condition. Being that this is a used item, I was not expecting it to look brand new, but it did!

Very interesting from my old neighborhood. Long after I left.

Throughout America there are pockets of disturbed and disturbing culture that most of us never encounter. Odds are, folks interested in "high falutin'" things like literature have had only brushes with these hidden minions. Denizens of rural areas and the worst urban neighborhoods tend to be isolated by their dismal finances, limited social networks, low status jobs, etc.As much as we might prefer to ignore these segments of society--or merely package them for consumption on shows like "Jerry Springer"--not all of us have that luxury. Police officers and social service workers, for example, grapple with these realities daily. In his fascinating memoir "Sin City," G.W. "Bill" Reynolds III reminds us of another such job: elementary school principal.In "Sin City," Reynolds' stories have a surreal quality--that sense of facing an incomprehensible, alien sensibility. But these stories are real, and the characters marching into the principal's office give a peek at a bizarre reality. There is the hag-mother who spreads rumors that Reynolds is a Satanist and puts out a contract on his life. Then there is scout leader who introduces his young troop to whiskey, and the naked redhead who jumps from behind a bush to scare children. The students themselves are nearly as strange, and their parasites, emotional imbalances, brute violence, and learning difficulties give us an inkling of how this twisted legacy gets passed on.Unlike the television "talk" shows, however, "Sin City" is not merely a freak show, inviting self-satisfaction. Throughout the book, Reynolds as principal wades through his work shifts in a daze of disbelief, like the protagonists in such Naturalist novels as Celine's "Long Day's Journey into Night" and Bukowski's "Factotum." However, Reynolds consistently professes a commitment to help the students, and an often quixotic wish to keep their milieu from swallowing them. So, the dramatic through line is as much about how a human being copes with such a job as it is about the people who make the job difficult.Reynolds' prose is just right for the kind of storytelling he does here. Many of the chapters are self-contained stories, although there are situations and characters that develop across several chapters. Reynolds deftly renders his writing nearly invisible, allowing the actions, dialogue and settings to overshadow the authorship.However, Reynolds as writer does intrude on his stories in some instances. The question "Are people crazy or what?" wears thin quickly, but reappears throughout the book. Reynolds also trusts his readers less than he should sometimes, as in cases where he explains the import of situations when it has been quite clear from the descriptions. A good editor could easily have tweaked these problems, but as a self-publisher, Reynolds did not have the amenities afforded to "big" authors.I highly recommend this book. Nearly every reader will experience the odd combination of shock and laughter that these true stories evoke.