13 Young Black Man's Attempt Failed A Truthful Account Of Loss

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus is a man who repeatedly drives a boulder up a cliff, only to come really close to the top and then see the boulder roll back down. This book is a modern-day equivalent of Sisyphus' pointless exercise.
The author enrolled 13 young black men from South Central Los Angeles in community college in the hopes of changing their lives. His experiment with these young men ended in failure. He lost because he underestimated what it would take to change dysfunctional inner-city young men. He lost because he overestimated people's compassion about young black men attempting to improve.