McCormick's "Sold" may have been devastating to read, but this one was viscerally painful -- getting inside the head of a young black man beaten by a police officer. While Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely may have known how topical their award-winning book would be as they were writing it, the impact of the story in yet another summer of police shootings of black men was stunning as a read. Taking place in a ubiquitous "Springfield, USA" we have the tale of two high school students. One is Rashad, a black ROTC kid with a stern father. He goes into a store to buy some chips before heading to a party, collides with a white woman and is beaten by a police officer who believes he was trying to steal from the store and assaulted the woman. The other is Quinn, a white basketball player whose military father died in service, heading to the same party, when he sees the cop pounding Rashad into the pavement. Problem -- the cop is the older brother of Quinn's best friend, and has been a mentor to Quinn after his father's death. Told in alternating chapters, with each section being a day in a single week, the changing perspectives bring the entire national conversation front and center, covering all perspectives. In the case of Rashad, this works. His tale is personal, real, and far more complex than I ever imagined. For instance, it never occured to me that members of black families might have different takes on an incident like this, or that the victims of police brutality might feel, well, like victims -- ashamed and embarrassed. In the case of Quinn, however, the book stumbles a bit. Quinn's "voice" is not consistent. At times, he reads like an uneducated hick, and other times, he comes off as erudite. The author voice is clearly inserted from time to time to "make a point" which is a huge pet peeve for me. On the other hand, Quinn's swings may be part of the teenage male mind. Having no idea what may be in a teenage male mind (or a few adult male minds) I tried to give Mr. Kiely credit that this is a young man trying to make sense of something which is very hard to make sense of. The one big regret I had with the story was that Rashad creates a piece of art to work through his pain. While it is well described, words do not do justice to art, and I would have liked to see a finished version of what Mr. Reynolds had in mind.
This story is black and white (no pun intended). Rashad is a good kid, he is unarmed, he is not guilty of what he is accused of. Did he resist? Unclear, but unimportant. It is made obvious that the police officer continues to beat him long after he is capable of resisting. Unfortunately, many of the incidents which have captured national attention are less clear-cut, making the ongoing conversation in our society critical. This book has the ability to start that conversation, if we are brave enough to have it. Another new thing I have become aware of in the past month? The "conversation" that black parents must have with their black sons regarding what to do when stopped by police. What an awful lesson to learn as a child. In a clear, plaintive, and resonating voice, this novel successfully asks the question -- why can't everyone be "All American Boys" regardless of skin color?
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