Book Review - A Walk Across Dirty Water & Straight Into Murderers Row

By Eugene S. Robinson

"If I'm the best friend you have? You're in big trouble."

That is my favorite quote from my friend Eugene S. Robinson’s latest book, embodying classic Eugene: witty, direct, and accurate. But who is 'classic Eugene'? I met Eugene more than twenty years after the period described in the book. In my relationship with him he is thoughtful, fun loving, and a better prognosticator of MMA fights than me. This memoir focuses entirely on his early years from childhood to early manhood.

After reading the book, I would add "dangerous" to my description of him. This word describes a young man that for most of his teen and young adult life carried one or more guns on his person when out in public. He brought a shotgun to Stanford University and still graduated.

The book provides a sobering picture of life in the 1970s and 80s. It depicts extensive drug use and unreported child abuse. Girls and women were treated very poorly. Those were not the good old days for far too many people.

Reading the book,…