I’ve been reading but haven’t done one of these in a while so here goes. Mi mi mi mi cough cough ahem ahem

When I was traveling to New Jersey (that forsaken hole) I would fly in and over New York and see the Statue of Liberty and that was real nice and fun and then I headed into the swamps and then work and tried and find something decent to eat and maybe have a few beers and maybe talk to some stranger out of pure loneliness and then when I got back someone I know would always ask me if I went to New York City and I would say no of course I fucking didn’t and they would ask why and my answer was I didn’t want to mugged and shanked and die in some filthy alley or gutter and someone would say I don’t think it’s like that any more and I’d say I’m not taking my chances fuck that and there was that and the whole reason behind all of that is because the only thing I really know about NYC is from movies like The Warriors or that one with John Travolta’s brother or The French Connection or anything else I remember where gangs run crazy and steal and mug and burn things down and trash is everywhere and hookers kill you and everyone shanks you and the cops don’t care and rats and sewer lizards and muggings and beatings. And maybe that’s not right anymore and maybe if is but this book takes place in and around New York City in the 70s and the areas around it and all of those things happen in here so there. But this is a really good book all the way.

Well – I liked it but I also found it a little hard to read. it’s divided into three parts and while each part has the same few characters in them the writer also introduced about twelve more at the start of each one so it was hard for me to figure out what was going on and who was doing what until about 20 or 30 pages in. For a TOTALLY made up example, we might start off talking about this new movie they’re shooting in Harlem and then drift back in time to when the director was a kid and a bunch of the kids he grew up with and explore some of their back stories and where they are now and what crimes they committed and who they banged or did dope with or ran with or knifed or what run down apartment they lived in and circle back to the director for a bit and this girl he’s banging that’s the star of the movie but in another 30 pages or so you’re going to learn that this part of the story is really about the guy they send to go looking for the girl actress who went missing and all of his musings about the big city and the thugs around him. But honestly I liked it, it was just hard to follow a little.

I guess I should mention that I learned afterward that this is a follow up to one with (I guess) mostly the same characters but the first part in this book deals with a retired of sorts fellow who used to sell off stolen goods for various gangs. he has to do another job to get some Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter and there’s lots of bloodshed. Does he get the tickets? Maybe maybe not. Who’s to say around here.

The next one is about this fellow trying to make a blaxploitation flick and the star goes missing. Is she strung out on dope and getting pimped for five bucks a uhm job? Maybe! I don’t know!

The last part is about some fellows burning down buildings and people like kids are getting killed and the two guys that make the most impact from the first two bits go running around to take care of things one way or another. Do they succeed?? Will street justice be served? Maybe no one will ever find out! I don’t know shit and no one tells me nothing! Nothing!

But it’s an entertaining read. I don’t regret spending the time it took to finish it up. Like when you go or went to a busy theme park and stood in line out in the fucking heat for hours for a two minute ride or 30 seconds down a giant water slide and the wait sucked but you made eyes with some chick you’ll never see again your life and maybe you did afterward and maybe you slow danced to some 80s song like something from Mister Mister or that Lady in Red song by whoever that was and maybe you grazed a butt for the first time and you were all HOOOOOOLLLLLY SHIT in your head because you were maybe 13 or so or even 14 when you think about it while you’re writing a post for a blog almost 40 years later and you’re thinking about that and the summer smells of the park and staying up past midnight and the winds off the beach and when you didn’t have to pay taxes and now you can’t really remember how you got home from Magic Mountain that night since you couldn’t drive but you guess your grandparents must have picked you up but you probably don’t remember because you put your arm on some chick’s back and butt décolletage and and ah yes the early days.

I wrote that a few hours ago and got to thinking about it and maybe that’s what Whitehead did here – brought up some memories from his childhood and wrote them down and kind of – my friend I call Pep Pep called it – the smells or the music brought back a ‘zeitgeist’ in his brain and he wrote it all down in long paragraphs and introduced people he was thinking of and he remembered this and that and it looked good – kind of like how this post of mine spiraled out of control and would never be considered good but it’s coming from my brains and still, I never want to go to New York City.

FILED UNDER: THAT FIRST TIME YOU WERE IN PUBERTY AND TOUCHED A BUTT AND MAYBE BOB SEGER’S MAINSTREET WAS PLAYING ON THE OVERHEAD SOUND SYSTEM BUT IT WAS PROBABLY MORE LIKE EARLY MTV DANCE MUSIC