Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Team Large Print Book - Thorndike Press Bill's Bookshelf - Perfect for Dodgers Fans & Sports Enthusiasts, Great Gift for Baseball Lovers, Ideal for Reading at Home or as a Coffee Table Book

There is much that is good about this book. It's fun to read, in a page-turner sort of way, and it seems to have things to say about the context 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 witness to an earlier gangster slaying. These are young guys; the protagonist is 15 and the designated trigger man is 13.The protagonist, East, knows virtually zero about the world beyond his housing project, the Boxes, so we enjoy that rather easy pleasure of seeing the surprise and wonder of someone finding out what we already know all about. Remarkably, we don't have to suspend disbelief all that much to accept this improbable journey by four young members of an urban organized crime gang.But the characters? I feel about East and his cohort 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 faced cruel prejudice by the white middle class. Just in case we missed the dramatic elements, the African American couple was a flawless example of the middle class ideal: Nice-looking, immaculately clean, intelligent, very well spoken, with no discernible accent. It didn't take an Einstein to notice that the only objection anyone could have to these paragons of middle class virtue would be merest prejudice; the conceit was just too obvious for a critical viewer, however (though they kept making those shows).East is not that simple. He is complex and fascinating; 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 acquaintances. He wasn't believable enough to make me appreciate what a remarkable character Brewer has ginned up for us.