This book is an easy read and it’s fun to read, in a page-turner sort of way, and it seems to have things to say about the setting of the story, which is about four teen-aged African American youths who are sent by their gangster boss to travel by car from LA to Wisconsin, there to kill a eyewitness to an earlier gangster assassination. These are young guys; the character is 15 and the chosen trigger man is 13.
The character, East, knows nearly zero about the world beyond his housing project, the Boxes, so we enjoy that rather easy desire of seeing the surprise and wonder of someone finding out what we already know all about. Extraordinarily, we don't have to suspend suspicion all that much to accept this unbelievable journey by four young associates of an urban organized crime gang.
But the characters? I feel about East and his regiment sort of how I used to feel about movie characters in TV and movies back in the 1950s and 60s, the ones with an African American couple who confronted cruel prejudice by the white middle class. Just in case we missed the vivid elements, the African American couple was a perfect example of the middle class ideal: Nice-looking, perfectly clean, smart, and very well spoken, with no obvious accent. It didn't take an Einstein to notice that the only protest anyone could have to these paragons of middle class virtue would be merest prejudice; the smugness was just too obvious for a serious viewer, however (though they kept making those shows).
East is not that humble. He is difficult and captivating; he has managed to construct an identity out of rough elements in a harsh, demanding world. But his English is too good. He doesn't sound like a boy from the Box with no education and no middle class friends. He wasn't believable enough to make me appreciate what a remarkable character Brewer has gunned up for us.
“This book was sent to me by Blogging For Books . “
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