This Life, Quntos KunQuest
This Life, Quntos KunQuest
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This Life
A Novel

Author: Quntos KunQuest, Zachary Lazar

Narrator: Sean Crisden

Unabridged: 6 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/24/2022

Synopsis

Lil Chris is just nineteen when he arrives at Angola as an AU—an admitting unit, a fresh fish, a new vict. He's got a life sentence with no chance of parole, but he's also got a clear mind and sharp awareness—one that picks up quickly on the details of the system, his fellow inmates, and what he can do to claim a place at the top. When he meets Rise, a mature inmate who's already spent years in the system, and whose composure and raised consciousness command the respect of the other prisoners, Lil Chris learns to find his way in a system bent on repressing every means he has to express himself.

Lil Chris and Rise channel their questions, frustrations, and pain into rap, and This Life flows with the same cadence that powers their charged verses. It pulses with the heat of impassioned inmates, the oppressive daily routines of the prison yard, and the rap contests that bring the men of the prison together.

This Life is told in a voice that only a man who's lived it could have—a clipped, urgent, evocative voice that surges with anger, honesty, playfulness, and a deep sense of ugly history. Angola started out as a plantation—and as This Life makes clear, black inmates are still in a kind of enslavement there. This Life commands our attention with the vigor, dynamism, and raw, consciousness-expanding energy of this essential new voice.

About Quntos KunQuest

Quntos KunQuest was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1976. Since 1996, he has been incarcerated at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola, Louisiana. He is a musician, rapper, visual artist, and novelist.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Wally on June 10, 2021

This Life is a fascinating novel for several reasons, starting with its publishing history. In the book’s Foreword, Zachary Lazar writes that he first met Quntos KunQuest in 2013 at Louisiana’s notorious Angola Prison. Lazar, a professor of English at Tulane University, had come to the prison as a jo......more

Goodreads review by Gayle on September 08, 2021

Full review at [URL not allowed] Amidst the hubbub this week around big new September releases, I finished a book that’s unlikely to attract nearly as much attention, but should. It’s called This Life by Quntos KunQuest, and it’s a debut novel from an author who is currently in......more

Goodreads review by Star on May 24, 2022

I had a terrible time understanding the narration. I believe the dialect and dialogue cut out huge masses from understanding the story as well as the anger. There is a great deal of profanity and the N word is freely spewed.......more

Goodreads review by Reece on July 03, 2022

"To touch without feeling is the ultimate sin." This Life is a lot like 8 Mile but with a surprising dose of philosophy. It takes a while to get to the meat, but Lil Chris, a teenager in Angola Prison, is caught between two ideological sects who spread their message through rap: Skies Over Gaza and D......more

Goodreads review by Lanette on December 26, 2023

I felt honored to listen to this brilliant audiobook as an advanced reader copy from Netgalley and Agate Publishing, and I feel we are all lucky this book found its way to print. This is a first-hand account of life inside Angola Prison told from the perspective of a young inmate sentenced to life t......more

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