The Upside of Fear: How One Man Broke the Cycle of Prison, Poverty, and Addiction

Weldon Long
Greenleaf Book Group Press (2009)
ISBN 9781608320004
Reviewed by William Phenn for Reader Views (8/09)

 

Mr. Weldon Long tells a story about an armed robber that made good; how he started out on a life of crime and what his life was like, to how he is now and how he saved himself.  Weldon starts out with his earliest days of getting into trouble.  First, his encounter with the local cops as a young boy then all the way to the big time. His story is told in intricate detail from the beginning to the big time crimes and the Feds chasing him. Weldon had been labeled “a bad seed” by the local police and “Wanted” by the Feds. He worked his way up the crime ladder from petty little things (such as car theft) when he was still a juvenile, to the big time of armed robbery and attempted murder as an adult. He was sent to prison time after time, getting worse with every trip back.  He tells it like it is about his struggles with alcoholism and the fight for survival in a world full of drugs and booze.

Then, the turning point comes when he meets the love of his life -- this woman that stuck with him through his incarceration and finally his release from prison -- an angel of mercy that gave him the will to beat the odds and fight to get where he is today. Once they got together, he turned his life around and became the man he wanted to be. He began to have a real life, a real home, a real job and most of all, a real family. It was his dream and he began to live it, but not without paying his dues.

“The Upside of Fear” by Weldon Long is a very frank and dramatic book. It is not intended for a young audience and would not be that interesting to them anyway. The subject is dear to many in our society that have been there and done that; those are the ones that need to read this true story. It is an inspiration and a very motivating account of one man beating the odds and turning his life around. I gave “The Upside of Fear” a high rating of A because of the way Mr. Long presented it; the way it was written, it kept my attention.

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