Arnavaz Fatemi
From being an abused orphan to finding himself within the Krishna religion, John Joseph, the protagonist and author of his autobiography “The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon” has had to deal with almost every obstacle imaginable
Joseph was born into a family with an abusive dad and had to deal with seeing and hearing his mother being beaten on a regular basis. Due to domestic violence, Joseph and his brothers were put into an orphanage. After moving from house to house, the brothers finally went to one home which could be described as hell-on-earth.
In this specific house, Joseph and his brothers were fed moldy bread with thrown-up cookies on it. They were abused often and dressed in old, ripped-up clothes.
At this point of the story you can truly hear the anger that Joseph is feeling through his word-choice. With the amount of emotion he portrays, I hurt for him. I hurt to the point where I wanted to go to New York and find the family that did this to him to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Finally, the orphanage realized the conditions that Joseph and his brothers were living in, and once again, they moved homes.
The new family they lived with were rich and nice, however, since Joseph and been through so much, he had become violent and the family did not want him anymore.
Finally, in his young teenage years, Joseph was put into a boy’s home in a bad New York neighborhood. He got into drugs and running around with hooligans.
Then, he decided that running away from the home would be a good idea.
Joseph was staying in abandoned buildings and other places he could find to stay warm at night. He sold drugs to make money and tried to scam people as much as he could to survive.
To think that this is a true story about someone who was so young and dealt with so much more while he was a teenager than most people would deal with in a lifetime, is mind-blowing. Joseph had to deal with addiction, the navy, betrayal by close friends, relapse, the adrenaline of being in a band and religion.His story is an epic tale of survival and making the best of what you have.
Either the music Joseph loves or the religion that could be said that saved his life, it’s easy to see that he is appreciative of what life hands him.
At some points of the story, while he is talking about the Krishna religion, it sounds as if he is preaching more than telling a story of how it helped him.
At that point, you would almost want to skip those pages, but Joseph writes with such passion that it is hard to skip-over any of the 428 pages.
It is obvious that he is a high school drop-out while reading the book. He is not politically correct, but it is a nice change from false stories by people who look-up to Shakespeare.
Even if you have never heard of his band or if you do not like his music, this book is so much more than just John Joseph the lead singer.
It is about John Joseph — the survivor.