Snitch
by Booker T Mattison
Paperback
Price: £8.99
Publisher:Revell imprint of Baker Pub from Lion
Published:July 2011
ISBN:978-0-800-73396-4
GoodBookStall Review:
Written, surely, to appeal to young, black urban-dwellers, this fast-paced novel is set in the culture of gang warfare and the illicit drugs trade, in Jersey City, near New York. The characters are mainly men who are either deeply set in the gang life-style, have renounced it, or (like the protagonist) have fallen into the situation of being a reluctant, failed father and feckless would-be husband; added to this are the aggrieved grandparents, and a psychotherapist, who seemingly come from an African-American elite, who have raised themselves by hard work or education. Thus, the book presents a series of differing possibilities as to the alternatives and choices set before originally-underprivileged American black people, and the reality of Christian faith as the authentic route to those choices. At times I failed to understand the language entirely (“hood” is simply short for neighbourhood, I finally realised, not something to do with gangsters), but that, presumably, shows the book’s authenticity. Perhaps this is a suitable book for the church youth library - young people would surely get the language better than us oldies.
Reviewer: John Thomas (24/08/11)
Written, surely, to appeal to young, black urban-dwellers, this fast-paced novel is set in the culture of gang warfare and the illicit drugs trade, in Jersey City, near New York. The characters are mainly men who are either deeply set in the gang life-style, have renounced it, or (like the protagonist) have fallen into the situation of being a reluctant, failed father and feckless would-be husband; added to this are the aggrieved grandparents, and a psychotherapist, who seemingly come from an African-American elite, who have raised themselves by hard work or education. Thus, the book presents a series of differing possibilities as to the alternatives and choices set before originally-underprivileged American black people, and the reality of Christian faith as the authentic route to those choices. At times I failed to understand the language entirely (“hood” is simply short for neighbourhood, I finally realised, not something to do with gangsters), but that, presumably, shows the book’s authenticity. Perhaps this is a suitable book for the church youth library - young people would surely get the language better than us oldies.
Reviewer: John Thomas (24/08/11)
