Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me by Jerry McGill

Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me Reviews

• 
  J Beckett

  Ever wonder what a victim would say to their predator if given the opportunity? How possible would it be to poetically, dramatically, and coherently express the depth of one's angst after experiencing a tragic affair? Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me, does extraordinarily.
  
  Jerry McGill pens a poignant letter to the man he calls "Marcus" who shot him, leaving him a quadriplegic at age thirteen, but giving him more life than he'd ever imagine. In this "narrative," we are taken through the tragedy, through the course of rehabilitation, through the emotional maze that many "mobile" individuals take, undeniably, for granted. McGill tells "Marcus" about the challenges he has had to endure, the moments lost, and the triumphs gained despite his obvious tribulation. For the reader, the journey is heart-wrenching but hopeful, calloused but not condescending, dismal yet magnificent. It answers the aforementioned question, not with ease, but with clarity. If nothing else, Dear Marcus... provides a memoir of hope for the most hopeless of circumstances. It, the book, gives value to one's existence and charts the long road toward the recovery from adversity.
  
  This is a must read for both victim and predator and those curious. It is a reminder that there are two sides to the demonic ills that exist in America's larger cities (and smaller communities)and Jerry McGill guides us, painstakingly, through both sides.
• 
  David Lucander

  I can't believe someone had a life this hard and wrote a book so easy to read. A coffee, a beer, done. This would probably be great for high school students - not younger, deal with some adult themes. I've got to remind myself to reread this book if I ever lose my own faculties - McGill's reminiscences and meditations on being wheelchair are a powerful testimony to the human spirit.
• 
  Shelley

  I have read many powerful books in my life, but none touched me as deeply as this heartfelt story of Jerry McGill. After being shot on the street at the age of thirteen Jerry found his life forever changed. He was shot in the back resulting in a spinal injury which would ensure he would never walk again. While others would have drowned in their own self-pity, Jerry found a way to deal with his demons and come out a bright and shining adult.
  
  By addressing this book to his attacker, thirty years later, the reader is allowed into the deepest thoughts of everything Jerry has gone through in order to become the man he is. The ultimate theme of the book is forgiveness and personal development. Jerry has worked through his anger and dissatisfaction with his situation and has emerged with a beautiful personality that only brutal honest can give a person. In his book, he ranges from blaming his attacker for what he has taken away to thanking him for all the opportunities his attack presented to Jerry because he gained a new viewpoint on life.
  
  Upon finishing this book, I not only wanted to embrace the author for everything he shared with me, but thank him for taking the time to pen these thoughts to paper. You will think twice about how you view people with a disability and how much they can accomplish. You will also understand how all of our lives a valuable and interwoven, even when we don't see the threads. I recommend this book to everyone! I would love to one day get the chance to meet this wonderful man and thank him in person for what he has given to me through his beautiful, brutally honest story.
• 
  Doreen

  McGill tells his life story through a letter, written to the person who shot him, causing him to be quadriplegic. It's a fascinating book. McGill uses the fictitious name, Marcus, as the shooter, because his assailant's true identity is unknown.
  
  In the story, McGill credits Marcus' heinous action with most of the wonderful, exciting opportunities he has had in life. If McGill had never been injured, he would not have become the person he is today. This doesn't excuse Marcus for what he did, it simply acknowledges that McGill's life would have been lived under different circumstances, thus resulting in a different man. McGill is happy with the man he has grown to be and is appreciative for the wonderful things he continues to accomplish and enjoy.
  
  The writing is beautiful. I don't want to give away details because no one can tell it better than McGill himself. I started reading this book before work today. I came home after work in a rush to read more, finishing it in one final sitting. I hope McGill continues with his writing. Someone who writes as beautifully as he, should never stop writing.
• 
  Joann(san diego shutterbug)

  very inspiring. Humor mixed with a lot of other emotion. It made me laugh it made me cry. It seems as if writing the book helped to deal with the life even that was very tragic. It defiantly showed how he turned a negative into a positive. Definite must read for anyone who has encountered a tragic even in their life. he showed us(the reader) the different phases of what he went through with this life changing event. I won this as part of a goodreads.com first reads giveaways. Shipment was very fast. Definatly a great book and one i would read time and again. people could alot from this book. It should be apart of every college level english comp class. It would change the way people think about people with disabilities. This has inspired me to to write "a letter" to certain people in my own life to help with some issues i have. the person who shot him may never read it but to me it was a great therapy tool that helped overcome a lot of the emotional side of what happened with him. Highly Recommended to all my friends.
• 
  Wendy E.

  This is summer reading hopeful. We'll see. It is certainly inspirational, but I'm not sure some of the language will fly.
• 
  Ana-Maria Bujor

  This is an interesting book, especially as the author seems to be a completely different person from me. I like the writing, the storytelling and the fact that the book does not become a misery-fest. Also, it's quite informative when it comes to the situation of people with disabilities and the many obstacles they have to deal with. Also one learns quite a bit about living in a "bad" neighborhood and what it means for the children growing up in one. But overall it's a book filled with hope, forgiveness and quite tough self-evaluation.
  Jerry got shot at the age of 13 and lost the use of his legs. The attacker was never caught. And yet Jerry manages to overcome this and writes this book to the shooter, offering to forgive, but not to forget or excuse. And here comes the part where him and I are very different people - I would probably spend my life hating and self-loathing, while he makes the best of the situation. That is something I respect. Also our perceptions of relationships with the opposite sex could not be more different, but again, this is not good or bad. It just is.
  Overall a sincere and well written book, worth checking out.
• 
  Anji

  Funny and uplifting letter to the man who shot a 13 year old boy
• 
  Cookie

  I've had this book for...I don't even know how long...but it's been at least a couple of years. I was finally able to sit down and read it. Powerful writing. I'm happy I took the time to read it.
• 
  Crystal

  Amazing!
  Heartbreaking!
  Beautifully written.
• 
  Linda

  I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Jerry McGill is a former co-worker of mine, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to read and review his book. Since I know him as Jerry, I typically will be referring to him as "Jerry", rather than "the author" or "Mr. McGill".
  
  Although I was currently reading another book, I couldn't resist opening Jerry's autobiography to read the first few pages, perhaps a chapter. The first chapter went so quickly that I didn't stop there; it is a very readable book. I made it through nearly half of the book before other duties called me away, and I returned to it later that night because I felt compelled to learn the rest of the story.
  
  Jerry explains, "I didn't write this book for you, Marcus. I wrote this for a certain population of the world: Those who endure. Those who manage. Those who cope. Those who get out of bed every morning and continue to go on with the business of their lives knowing what they know. Those who look into the eye of the storm and step out of it battered, drenched, and unbeaten. Those who are determined to move on." I think this book will appeal to that audience, as well as those who feel lost or overwhelmed but want to continue on, or perhaps need encouragement. It is a book that could have a profound effect on the lives of people struggling in certain circumstances. It will inspire others. Jerry's perseverance through hardship is notable.
  
  Now let me comment on his writing style. This is his autobiography, so naturally it is written in the first person. His writing flows smoothly, making it very readable. He creates amazing mental images with his depictions. One I cannot resist sharing - comparing Brownsville, Brooklyn, to the Lower East Side, Manhattan - is "In Brooklyn, the buildings all seemed to stalk over you like great cement scarecrows, blocking out sunlight and optimism simultaneously." When describing the hospital, he writes, "There is a subtle yet deafening moroseness to those alcohol-perfumed gray halls and white and blue uniformed folk who move about them." When I worked with him, I hadn't realized he had such a gift for writing. I relish how real he makes it feel.
  
  When another person makes you the victim of his or her actions, as Jerry chronicles in his book, you wonder why me, ask lots of what ifs, and puzzle through numerous unanswered questions for which you contemplate a series of possible answers. That is natural. But, how one responds beyond that varies by person. Being the victim of another person does not mean you must accept the "victim" role, which Jerry most definitely does not. When we worked for the same company, he absolutely did not give people the impression that he was a victim. Several of those he trained told me that he was their favorite trainer and they were amazed by him. I'm not sure the book provides an accurate perception of how remarkable he is. At work, he was always smiling, friendly, and encouraging. He gave the impression that no obstacle would stop him - he would find a way.
  
  There are things I enjoyed about the book that appeal to me personally, such as his quotes from classic literature. I also appreciated the accuracy of the portrayal of adapting to being confined to a wheelchair, of how he described the thoughts, difficulties, and experiences of a sudden life-changing event of that nature. These include thinking that your friends will now view you as lesser and also needing help to use a toilet. My husband experienced similar self-doubts and difficulties after having had below-the-knee amputations. It is an honest, poignant portrayal of a significant life-changing event.
  
  Perhaps what most appeals to me is when he explains to Marcus, "I want to make one thing perfectly clear in this whole scenario. With all this gratitude and appreciation for who I am and the person I became, it doesn't change one integral, salient fact in this matter and that is simply this: What you did was wrong. Inarguably, unequivocally improper." There are some people who, if I tell them I gained something from being victimized, think it is excusing the perpetrator, but it isn't - it doesn't change that what the person did was wrong. I appreciated his expression of that idea. It is a joy and a relief every time I encounter someone who understands that.
  
  Since I only rated this book 4 stars when other people are giving it 5 stars, I want to explain. I rarely rate any book over 4 stars; of the tens of thousands of books I've read, less than 1% receive a 5-star rating, primarily due to having an impact on me at the right time and place in my life. If I had read this book at a certain time of my life, it would have been one of those. I definitely want to read any other books he writes, including fiction, because of his flair for descriptions and writing style.
• 
  The Reading Countess

  Recommended by a friend and initially intended to be read as a read aloud to middle schoolers (um...that's a negative), Dear Marcus is a memoir best read by adults and young adults.
  
  I enjoyed the beginning of the book where Jerry McGill writes with conviction and strength about his earlier life preceeding the fateful night when he was shot in the back by an anonymous shooter. I especially liked how each chapter read like a screenplay. For example: INT. HOSPITAL ROOM-DAY "Jerome sits up in his wheelchair in front of a canvas..."
  
  By the end of the book even though Jerry is now an adult and has reinvented his life through impressive schooling and jobs, he begins to sound, well, preachy. I hesitate to even say this because I have full range of motion and can get up and go without being tied to a wheelchair. Nevertheless, Dear Marcus remains an inspirational tale of the indomitable spirit we all have if we seek to dig down deep. Some of us, when faced with the darkest hours in our life find a hidden strength. Some don't. Jerry did. And his attacker, no matter if he/she is still alive or dead, didn't win.
  
  "You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
  
  "...maybe, just maybe, growing up deprived of love is the worst thing that can happen to a person. Maybe he who never cries is doomed to live in a prison of his own heart's making."
  
  "For me, one of the most disappointing aspects of the entire experience was that I never really got to fully thank those folks for all they did for me. I wish so much that they knew how much I appreciate everything. It's almost like I feel incomplete as a person never having said these things to them. However, I know that nursing, like teaching, is one of those thankless professions in which the person going into it does so not because they want or need instant gratification. No, they do so because they earnestly care; many of them feel a calling to the work. They have accepted that the path of life is such that the person may not reap the fruits of their experience together until years, maybe decades later. It is selfless work that requires much heart and great inner strength. I can only hope they know how much I love them."
  
  "Happiness is a thing I can control if I put my mind to it. It is my perspective and how I choose to see my life that is really going to make the difference at the end of the day."
  
  "...at the end of the day all that will matter is that under the dense weight of all that occurred, when all was said and done, you had the strength and the fortitude to lift yourself up, open the door, and step out into the light."
  
• 
  Ken

  Read in a few short hours, Jerry McGill's Dear Marcus, a straightforward narrative of life after a mystery assailant's bullet to the back, runs the full gamut of emotions: confusion, despair, anger, and hope among them. The conceit here is that McGill is writing to the person who shot him, but the book functions just fine as a straightforward personal narrative of what it is like to be a paraplegic because of a senseless act. Shot in '82, the reminiscing McGill selects the name "Marcus" for the shooter randomly. He briefly details his life in the Lower East Side (now East Village), what happened on New Year's when he was 13, and, for an extended narrative stretch, his recovery in St. Vincent's since-shuttered Hospital. In the latter half of the book, he chronicles how he has built his life from the ashes of disbelief, of "Why me?", and of an unquenchable thirst for life that includes acting, writing, and film. In these chapters, he touches on what it is like to have no bathrooms to easily access, to travel, to develop romantic relationships -- all of the things people without disabilities take for granted.
  
  Best of all, though, is the journey of his own soul. It, too, was disabled on that fateful day. But, unlike the physical handicap, he was able to nurse it back to full powers. Yes, he had a lot of help along the way, but no way this miracle could happen without he himself refusing to accept secondary status from the sometimes heartless humanity surrounding him. Although the book is mostly told, McGill does stop to create some dramatic scenes along the way. His story is an indictment of the senseless violence that sometimes grip poverty- and crime-stricken areas without hope, but it is more a phoenix-like fable of the fabulous power of the human spirit.
  
• 
  Scot

  This is a straightforward, quick read of a memoir, interspersed with brief life scenes presented as screenplay outtakes. Young people will take to reading this book with ease, I suspect. I also appreciated very much the choice of Rainer Marie Rilke for the epigraph--not what you'd expect in the story of a young black man who was senselessly shot by chance one day on the street when he was in junior high and had to come to grips with life as a quadriplegic.
  
  This is the tale of that adjustment, but it does not fall into the trap of self-obsession or self-celebration that too often consumes the contemporary memoir as a literary form. Instead, there is a direct and honest accounting that rings true, so that the work avoids schmaltz and instead truly offers inspiration. McGill's message is not only inspiring, it's wise, and the title reveals his clever method of coping: working out his relationship (if he could have one) with the unknown assailant offers a procedure to build a worldview and a perspective to help him get the most out of life.
  
  There was a reference near the end of the book that made me suspect the author, Jerry McGill, had turned up as a character in a book I read a few years ago by Dalton Conley --another memoir of growing up in that tough part of New York in the same time period (the 80s) entitled Honky. Turns out I was right, as a quick read of the Acknowledgements at the end revealed. I'm glad both of these young men got their stories shared with a wider audience; there are important life lessons in both, whatever your race and whether you've ever had to deal with a sudden unexpected calamity or not.
• 
  Cindy Leighton

  "You never know what worse luck your bad luck saved you from" - Cormac McCarthy
  
  Jerry (Jerome) McGill was shot in the back at age 13 by a random shooter who is never identified - and spends the rest of his life a quadriplegic. Written as a letter to his anonymous shooter, McGill reflects on his life before and the thirty years since the shooting. Raised in a tough neighborhood in New York, he spends part of his life hating his mother for getting pregnant with him at 16, for "raising me in neighborhoods that I was afraid to come home to, for not being attractive enough to keep s man around... For being a statistic: poor, black, single, welfare-recipient mother."
  
  But he grows. Goes to Fordham University to study English and later Pacific University to study education. He becomes a writer, teacher, motivator. Not just a "feel good story" of triumph over adversity, though this is that. But a raw, honest, passionate reflection on life, choices, and happiness. Very inspiring without being pukey and unrealistically inspiring.
• 
  Colin

  This book is pretty fucking rad. It's a super-fast read; engaging, personable, witty and smart. Ultimately, it's about acceptance, healing, compassion, forgiveness, transformation and love. I related to it a lot.
  
  A couple times I totally teared up. Like with this: "I hope someone loved you, Marcus. I hope someone still loves you today, and that you are able to lavish love on someone as well. You gotta be able to do both. I don't know that anything we do in this world matters more. The main ingredient that got me through this ordeal, both in the hospital and for all the years after, was the love and affection of others. That and my sense of humor pulled me through this dark crevasse and into the sunlight. I can testify to the healing power of unconditional love. And the funny thing is, I probably have you to thank for it. Now that's fucking irony, if I do say so myself."
  
  This book is about the alchemy of grief and pain into joy. Fuck. Yes.
• 
  Jenn

  I received this book as a giveaway and I cannot be any happier or greatful for being able to read this book. This book gave me insight to a world that is different from my own in several ways, one that not only made me greatful for the life I had growing up, but also made me think about all the situations in my life that have happened and the effect they had on me. I thought about how a situation that seems to be happening to only me in many ways is going to effect many other people and make changes in their lives. I really enjoyed this book and cant wait to share it with my friends and family that read, also for the times later in my life when I know I will return to this book and reread in order to broaden my thinking on situations that I may be going through that seem so difficult at the time and how I can choose to make the best of the situations to better the outcome and my life along with those around me.