Great Read!
Given that this is fire season out west, this book is an especially good read. The main character is a seasonal firefighter for the state of California--and while he loves the work (which makes him odd, according to the other men on his team), he can't make a year round living doing only that. So he tries to find work that will support him, his wife and child, and will leave him with dignity--not a victim of the streets like so many of the men and women who live in his poor neighborhood on the edge of LA. His solution is to play the race card in reverse--to supply nervous white Angelanos with safe, "Asian" lawn care, keeping his own identity secret.
I really liked the way Straight presented race--complex rather than simple.
I really liked the way Straight presented race--complex rather than simple.
This is the story of a black firefighter and workingman trying to work the toughest turf of all: the straight and narrow. As his friends disappear around him - victims of the streets, of police dogs, of drugs, of an addiction to cheap thrills and guns - he struggles to establish his own business, facing a thousand midnights before he's home free, with a job that supports his young family. This search for balance in a dangerous world propels the quiet heroism of a beautifully evoked and very moving story.
