Gang member contains all the excitement, action, and heartache found in a novel, but is actually an autobiographical account of the life of its author Percy Brown nicknamed "Twenty-Five". Percy Brown is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served as a machine gunner during the Vietnam era. He worked for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and Chrysler corporation in Detroit Michigan before his life changed decisively.

Denied a DNA test by Detroit's Friend of the Court, he was ordered to pay child support for a child that wasn't his. After being incarcerated in Detroit because of this case, he moved to Los Angeles and through a series of misfortunes became homeless. He was sleeping in a park when he became associated with a local gang that helped him get off the street.

Although he refused to participate in the robberies and drug deals that made the gang leaders rich Twenty-Five's fighting skills grew legendary in the gang underworld and he slowly began to move back into society as a respectable God fearing citizen.