Summary:
The lives of two young black men from the Harlem "hood" of upper Manhattan in New York become inextricably intertwined through a series of seemingly unrelated events.
Follow Noel -- the Dollar Man -- through his early life on the street, a brief respite in a group home following his parents' arrest for abusing his sister, Jenna, culminating in several years of incarceration at the Bridges Juvenile Detention Facility in the Bronx after making a bold, but short-lived escape from the group home together with one of his roommates.
At the same time, become intimately involved in the parallel life of Terrell -- the Hustler -- who spends most of his life in the home of his grandmother, "Mama B," following his own mother's departure after she murders her friend, and who chooses to drop out of high school in order to embark on a life of drug sales, fast money, sex, and violence.
Until he encounters Noel.
Follow Noel -- the Dollar Man -- through his early life on the street, a brief respite in a group home following his parents' arrest for abusing his sister, Jenna, culminating in several years of incarceration at the Bridges Juvenile Detention Facility in the Bronx after making a bold, but short-lived escape from the group home together with one of his roommates.
At the same time, become intimately involved in the parallel life of Terrell -- the Hustler -- who spends most of his life in the home of his grandmother, "Mama B," following his own mother's departure after she murders her friend, and who chooses to drop out of high school in order to embark on a life of drug sales, fast money, sex, and violence.
Until he encounters Noel.
My review:
I was completely blown away by this book. I read this book in one day.
Living in the city, I know things like what has been described in Mark Leslie's book can and do happen. I am grateful that I have never encountered such things. REALLY grateful!
Mark Leslie writes this book as fictional but it is based on real life events, events I imagine he has encountered himself. The book is gritty and certainly not for the faint of heart. There is sex, murder, hard core language, and drug abuse galore. I was shocked at the "gift" the character, Terell, was given from his mother. The way these two mens lives crossed was tragic and heartbreaking.
Oh, and the ending...totally unexpected! Unreal!
There are only two things that I saw as negative for the book, the book needed to be editied again as there were typos throughout. The other thing was the quotes before each chapter that alluded to content for each chapter was annoying and I think it could be dropped.
I highly recommend this book if you want to get into the minds of drug addicts, and people who are learning to survive in such a life.
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**A portion of each of the books sold goes to help a friend's family who was killed over drugs. This is very personal for the author.
5 stars
Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book. The review here is 100% my own and may differ from yours.
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