Understand This

Disciplines Literary Studies & Poetry Fiction

About the Book

Jervey Tervalon's novel about young people in South Central Los Angeles grows out of his experience teaching in a high school there and his pain at the death of one of his favorite students.

About the Author

Jervey Tervalon teaches English at California State University, Los Angeles. His most recent novel is Dead Above Ground (2000).

Reviews

"Gritty and gripping, Understand This marks the debut of a powerful new voice in American fiction."—Henry Louis Gates Jr., author of The Signifying Monkey

"Lean, wire-tight, and dazzlingly structured, Tervalon's Understand This is a book for our times."—José Saldívar, author of Border Matters