Dark

by Kenji Jasper

Book Overview

Thai Williams is walking a thin line between two worlds. On one side he has his job as a filing clerk for the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works, his girlfriend Sierra, and his plans for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767907078
• ISBN13: 9780767907071
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Good characters, good story

Please support this young writer by buying this book. He's done an excellent job at character development and plot execution. I read this book in about 5 hours. I couldn't put it down. Made me feel like I was reading a male version of THE COLDEST WINTER EVER and I couldn't put that book down either. It was a very realistic story and good to see that just because you are in the dark doesn't mean you always have to stay there. We all fall down ...

out of the dark and into the light...

i read this after les miserables, and they both compliment each other. thai , like valjean, are both products of their environment, shaped by their actions. thai kills a man after he catches him sleeping with his woman. he didn't want to do it, but he was influenced by his peers who don't knwo the value of life, who only know how to live by the gun. then thai flees to north carolina and spends a week finiding himself. discovers another life beyond the streets and meets people who will influence him for ever...the best thing abou this book is the characters. thai is street smart, yet vulnerable enough to know the value of life. even though he will defend himself to the death, he knows that killing is not the way to solve conflicts...i had a chance to check out d.c. recently. went walking through shaw, adams-morgan, and other parts of d.c., and found it to be like no place i have ever been to. a black city. the people there are proud of their hood and are doing their best to keep a proud heritage alive...i also like the realtionship between thai and his father. normally such relationships are virtually nonexistent. since black fathers are rarely around. thai's dad is just a hard working man doing his best to meet his ends. maybe if thai had a mom in his life, he wouldn't have turned out so hard, but that's the way it goes. bill in charlotte, serves as thai's surrogate dad, passing down wisdom as only an urban griot can...this books reads like a way cool blaxploitation flick...it feels so real it scares me..i know people like this...

A Young Man's Heavy Burden

"Dark" offers readers a glimpse into the life of a young, black man trying to figure out his identity and establish his values. Kenji Jasper does an excellent job of conveying the futility of much of the strife that takes place in the less than wealthy areas of Washington, D.C. "Dark" explains a lifestyle that many people, especially W.A.S.P.s like myself, make judgment upon without even partially recognizing all of the involved complexities. The size of the load that is on the protagonist's mind is more than most people would have to shoulder over the course of their entire life, and this gentleman is barely of legal driving age. Ultimately, this novel, though it is fiction, does an excellent job of letting a reader know what life is like in the core of many of America's historic cities. It makes a person consider that many people who partake in activities that society would describe as "ugly" are not necessarily the stereotypical, thoughtless thug. This book rings a note similar to "The White Boy Shuffle". While "Dark" book will beg to be read in one quick sitting (it is that captivating), take the time to also appreciate the literary talent and unique style that Kenji Jasper displays.

A book that flows

The best thing about this book - and there are a lot of good things - is how it flows. The dialogue, the story, the character, the relationships - each flows superbly well separately and together, to create an incredibly readable book. Its a great journey into the head of a black ghetto-bound 19 year old who suddenly finds himself a murderer through a mixture of pride, opportunism and peer pressure, and so leaves the ghetto for Charlotte NC to lay low and hang with a childhood friend who moved there a year before. His interaction with new characters create wonderful mini-stories, and the overall building of his character across a week of enlightenment in his life creates a highly memorable central protagonist. Totally recommended - a great read.

A woman's influence....

Ostensibly, this is a story about a young man on the lam for having senselessly killed another man. While the primary theme is one of redemption, there is also another theme that runs through this page-turner. It seems as if every male character's action or reaction is either directly or tangentially related to what some woman has done or failed to do. Is the cheating girlfriend or absent mother a convenient excuse for all that transpires? I'm not sure what to make of this. I was also troubled by the author's ability to make me like Thai. Overall, a very good first effort.