Book excerpt: Description Drexel fondly recalls his beautiful childhood, which was spent in a small over the hill community in The Bahamas call Montell Heights. Even though they were poor, yet those were the best years of his life. However, one day his life was shattered into a million little pieces, when his father walked out on them never to return. Soon thereafter, his father would attempt to kill his entire family. These events turned Drexel into a quiet but angry teenager, who violently rebelled against the system. Yet he was discovering that he was not alone in his feelings. Through interviews with drug dealers, prolific armed robbers, gang leaders, and convicted murderers, the pieces slowly began to fall into place. It became painfully obvious that they all were looking for the same things, to be accepted, to belong, and above all, to be love. Yet in the gang they found all of that and more, for the gang became the family they always wanted. Then one day without warning, their gang exploded in a furious internal war. Drexel now found himself desperately fighting for his life against friends, and a leader who was not only violent, ruthless, and brutal, but more strategically clever about the cold art of war. He ordered a hit on Drexel's life, and was there in person to witness him gun down in a hail of bullets. In this book "The fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father," some seven years later after losing his sight in a foiled arm robbery attempt, Drexel sits down with this notorious gang leader. As well as other individuals from rival gangs. It was then that he discovered that they all shared a common bond of neglect, rejection and fatherlessness. Thus, in their quest to be loved, accepted and appreciated they created a world of their own, a world of senseless violence and murder. As they each reveal what lured them into a life of crime and street gangs, the solutions to our social ills and crime problems can be found in their stories. As we journey with them from innocence to menacing, from youngsters to monsters and remorseless predators, it becomes quite evident that they all could've been prevented