When Michael K. Williams died on September 6, 2021, he left behind a career as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation, most notable as Omar Little in The Wire. At the time of his death, Williams had nearly finished a memoir that tells the story of his past while looking to the future, a book that merges his life and his life's work. Mike, as his friends knew him, was so much more than an actor. In Scenes from My Life, he traces his life in whole, from his childhood in East Flatbush and his early years as a dancer to his battles with addiction and the bar fight that left his face with his distinguishing scar.
[Williams'] death infuses the book, already plenty moving, already plenty searing, with an extra measure of 'what might have been' and 'Mike, we hardly knew you' poignancy ... Addiction, by turns sneaky and sly and strutting, is a principal character in Scenes from My Life, which charts Williams’s struggle to overcome poverty, neglect, bullying, and abuse.
Poignant, vivid ... His memoir offers relatively few details about his acting career, drug use or romantic relationships. Instead, it is a sensitive exploration of his journey to become an advocate for young people from backgrounds like his who get stuck in the school-to-prison pipeline.
