My students, particularly the boys and non-readers, love this book. I can't keep it on the shelves.

Interesting read, but a tab misleading. Abramovich focuses nearly as much on the evolution of Oakland and he does about the title friendship. Both are worthy subjects, yet splitting the page real estate between the two does neither justice. I would love to read more about Alex and the Rats and his friendship, as well as read about Oakland's myriad problems. Both in one book however, makes little sense. ( )

I received this book for free from Early Reviewers. I made it to page 74 and couldn't finish it because it was so boring. Yes this is a true story about a guy who goes to Oakland, CA to see an old classmate who used to bully him and is now the leader of the East Bay Rats gang. I just did not care for the story or the people in it. It was basically a fight club so back and forth it was going with fights and street races, etc. I just couldn't get into it and was literally tired of reading it. Not my cup of tea.

No stars for this one.

This book to me wasn't so much about friendship as it was about a motorcycle gang and violence. It was well written but if you are expecting a book about how a school bully and the boy who was bullied became friends as adults I think you will be disappointed. It just wasn't discussed as much as the club and the violence was. This just wasn't the book I thought it was going to be. I received this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers for an honest review. ( )

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not effect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

Alex Abramovich's memoir is centered around an unusual subject. He tracks down the person he remembers as being his childhood bully, Trevor, to find out what his life is like now, and they end up becoming friends.

Trevor is living in Oakland, the head of a motorcycle club known as the East Bay Rats. After Alex visits, he ends up moving to Oakland with his then-fiancee, and becomes the "embedded" recorder of the life of Trevor and his East Bay Rats.

This book is about so many topics, and Abramovich writes about all of them with knowledge and skill. Bullies is about childhood, forgiveness, morals, loyalty, poverty, the unreliability of our memories, the power of our past, masculinity, violence, freedom, and politics. It covers both the decline and gentrification of Oakland, the Occupy Oakland movement,and a local murder and subsequent trial.

But these weighty topics, as many as there might be, never get lost, or short-shifted. Abramovich weaves them all together, to tell a story about not only the impact we have on others, and on our environment, but the impact others, and our environment, have on us. ( )