Dodgers by Bill BeverlyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
It has taken me a few weeks to ponder this novel before reviewing it - the reason being it initially struck me as one of the best things I have read, certainly in the last couple of years, and I am always a little suspicious of really strong first reactions. But, having re-read passages and spent some time thinking about 'Dodgers', I am convinced that this book will be one I will return to again and again.
Bill Beverly's prose is sublime, his dialogue convincingly authentic and his characters, particularly his 'hero', East, whose coming of age story this is, well-drawn and realistic. 'Dodgers' is a novel of LA gangs, drug-dealing and murder but much, much more than that. It is the story of a Quest and shares a lot with 'Lord of the Rings' or, perhaps more closely, 'The Searchers'. Like them, the object of the quest is not what it initially appears to be, it is actually a search for self.
East, a teenage gangbanger, deemed responsible for a police raid on a crack den, is sent by his uncle and gang leader, to murder a witness in an upcoming trial, accompanied by three others including his volatile, dangerous younger brother. As East travels from LA to Wisconsin he discovers a country he has never imagined, let alone seen, peopled by a race alien to him, and he discovers who he is. The further east he goes the more he comes to understand East.
There is little light in 'Dodgers' but it is hauntingly, achingly beautiful. I look forward to whatever Bill Beverly does next.
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