Journal Entry 1 by synergy from San Antonio, Texas USA on Thursday, June 10, 2004

I'd had a copy of this book from a BXer from waaaay back in summer 2003. I kept putting it off and putting it off and never got around to reading it. Instead what happened was I went to big book sale from the S.A. Central library's Book Cellar and I found this identical copy. Well, except that the paperback had been put onto a hardcover. So instead I released the paperback I'd had for months with the big Memorial Day Espada park release and kept the hardback. This time I have lined it up to actually read it. Review when I get through two more books before it. 

Journal Entry 2 by synergy from San Antonio, Texas USA on Saturday, July 24, 2004

I finally made it through the 690 pages of this book. It was one of those books that I've always heard about and always meant to read if I got ahold of a free or cheap copy. This copy was actually the second one I had. The other one I'd gotten in an anonymous book exchange with another BXer summer of 2003. So now it's nearing the end of summer 2004 and I finally finished this book. Granted I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but I've been lazy about writing my review for it. So on to it...

Where to start. Well. I'm a fan of "Law & Order" the t.v. show. I became addicted to it late in college when I shared an apt with a pre-law student who was addicted to the show herself. That was back before all the various L&O incarnations. Well, this book would have made a good L&O story. It's set in NY and it has the whole drama from the detectives to the criminals to the court proceedings. On top of that, though, there's a lot of side stories. I would say that's my main gripe with this story. Perhaps when it was first written in 1987 it was a good idea to expound about how unfair "the system" is to non-whites and/or poor people, but these days that's just... old hat? tired? over used? It's not any different, but there's been plenty of books and shows that have done it since.

So the main plot is that there's a guy, Sherman, who's making a jillion dollars on Wall Street, has the ultra expensive housing, has one of those wives that doesn't do anything but spend his money decorating the place and going to parties where all the rich and uh beautiful people go, and sends his little girl enrolled in only the best school in town. Oh and he has a mistress. It's being with the mistress that causes him problems. He goes to pick her up at the airport when he's supposedly at work. On the way to dropping her off at their love pad, he takes a wrong turn. And another and another... Next thing he knows he's in Harlem with only "dark faces" everywhere, he stalls out his convertible when he tries to get the hell out of there, and two black males approach his car... Ever seen "The Color Purple"? The part where the white woman brings the Oprah character to her family's for Christmas and can't drive herself home to save her life? So she freaks with all the black men approaching the car trying to help her drive? Same thing happens at this point in the book. He panics and after one thing and another the mistress drives like a maniac out of there and in the process one of the guys gets hit by the car. She gets out of there and convinces herself and Sherman that it doesn't matter that she hit some black guy and no one has to know and they were justified in doing it.

So the rest of the book deals with how Sherman is quaking in his boots hoping no one finds out. There's also the parts where the detectives get shoved into investigating things when the hit guy goes into a coma but manages to tell his mother he got hit by a convertible and tells a partial license plate. There's lots of background of other black people going through the courts in Harlem and how the system keeps going through the motions getting people into prison, out of prison, how the white people who work there are afraid to ever actually leave the building, blah blah blah. Now that I'm on the subject of how much time is spent on background, it was 90 pages before it even gets to the pivotal bit in Harlem. I'd say most of everything before was just background on Sherman. But anyway, it wasn't until about page 469 that something of import FINALLY happens.

I'm not saying that the story wasn't good, but I guess coming from me that in the time it took me to read this book, about 2 weeks, I saw some 5-10 episodes of L&O that did the same thing as the book, only much much more concisely. As you might have guessed, my main gripe with this book is that it was massively too much longer than necessary. I think half the length would have sufficed to tell the same story.

I'd recommend this book to someone who doesn't watch L&O as much as I do and don't mind highly detailed writing-styles. From my description my husband says that Stephen King writes that much extra as well, just so you know... I've never read a King book so I wouldn't know...

I've decided I don't want to keep this book even if it's a hardback and I'm releasing it in the wild soon unless someone requests it. 

Journal Entry 3 by synergy at East S.A. Med. Ctr. - 1998 E. Houston St. in San Antonio, Texas USA on Sunday, August 01, 2004

Released on Sunday, August 01, 2004 at East S.A. Med. Ctr. - 1998 E. Houston St. in San Antonio, Texas USA.

Left this one in the door handles to the front door. The hospital? clinic? was closed today. Left it around 450PM.