Review: Raw, Brilliant, Honest, Uncompromising
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 22, 2011
This book is a piece of modern art set in prose instead of in pen or ink or oil.  You might not like the writing, and you might not like the grammar, or the points of view, or the shifting first and third person perspective.  But don't dismiss the book because it doesn't fit your idea of what a novel should be.  Don't turn away from it because it just happens to confuse you, or produces discordant thoughts.  Give it a chance.  If you do, you'll be better for it, and you may gain insights into things you only hope ever happen to other people.  I've never read a book like this, and I'll bet you never have either.  At times it is spell-binding in its poetry, and at times it just kicks you in the gut.  There are scenes that take your breath away, and scenes that make you wonder what you just read.  Three intricate plots tell three separate stories that ultimately intersect in a not-for-Hollywood ending.  The story is replete with drug culture and prison culture and police culture.  I believe the author knows first hand about these cultures, and presents an unvarnished look at all three.  Instead of some fictionalized or romantacized version of any of the cultures, there are just "been there done that" accounts that leave no doubt that this a world none of us ever want to encounter.  There are no heroes in this book, there are only real people who face real problems and deal with them in real ways the only way they know how.  The social and political commentary is delivered the same way as the fights, and the loving; full-on, live or die.  This is a binary book, you are going to love it, or you are going to hate it.  Keep writing Glenn, keep writing your way, you have something to say that needs to be heard, in all three of the cultures about which you write.JT Kalnay