Think Out Loud

Mitchell Jackson’s new book, “Survival Math,” is by and about a man trying hard to make sense of where he came from and how that place formed him. Most simply, it’s a memoir about his life growing up in Northeast Portland among pimps and drug dealers, about how he survived, and eventually thrived, becoming a celebrated writer and a professor at NYU. The book is also woven through with history, criminology, sociology and mythology. But it’s much more than just a personal memoir. Mitchell gives voice to other men in his life: a dozen family members, each of whom answered the same question: “What’s the toughest thing you’ve survived?”