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Midnight : a gangster love story
Souljah, Sister
Adult Fiction SOULJAH
From Publishers' Weekly:
Souljah's follow-up to her bestselling novel, The Coldest Winter Ever, is another gritty coming-of-age tale, picking up the story of Midnight (a character in Coldest Winter) as he tries desperately to navigate American culture, Brooklyn streets and the dicey business of growing up. The novel begins as seven-year-old Midnight and his pregnant mother, Umma, are forced to leave their privileged life in Sudan for a hardscrabble American existence. Midnight spends his formative years in Brooklyn guiding and translating for his loyal, loving and talented mother, helping her get a factory job while encouraging her to start a clothing line. Eventually, Midnight starts working at a Chinatown fish shop, finds love, joins a dangerous hustler's basketball league and tries to disentangle his ambivalent feelings toward romance, family and personal honor. Souljah's sensitive treatment of her protagonist is honest and affecting, with some realistic moments of crisis. Unfortunately, a slack plot and slow pacing cause serious bloat, and Souljah's distinctive prose is woefully unpolished. Frustrations aside, Souljah has obvious talent and sincere motives, making her a street-lit sophomore worth watching. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
Verdict: Just as Sister Souljah set the bar for quality urban fiction almost a decade ago with her groundbreaking classic, The Coldest Winter Ever, her new installment to the Winter Santiaga story raises the bar for the genre again. Tenderly yet honestly written and illustrated with striking photographs depicting the main characters, this multimodal book deserves to be studied for its cultural importance in high school English classes throughout America and promises to be edifying readers for years to come. Essential; buy multiple copies to be shelved as YA and/or adult fiction. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/08.] Background: In this prequel to TCWE, readers get the full backstory of Midnight, the elusive yet intensely loyal right-hand man to Ricky Santiaga, Winter's drug kingpin father. With connections to upper-class Africa and inner-city America, Midnight knows what it means to be an outsider. Growing up in Sudan, Midnight is raised as a skilled warrior by his father, a high-ranking political figure. When war breaks out, Midnight's family flees to America, but his father stays behind. Now the man of the family at the tender age of 13 and living a private, Sudanese lifestyle in the projects of Brooklyn, Midnight works to get out of the hood, educates himself, trains in martial arts, and fearlessly guards his pregnant mother and young sister. He eventually falls in love with a beautiful artist, whose culture is interwoven with his own. Midnight's adolescent years are an authentic testament to the rigors of reconciling an immigrant identity with an American experience.-Vanessa J. Irvin Morris, Drexel Univ., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Souljah, Sister
Adult Fiction SOULJAH
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From Publishers' Weekly:
Souljah's follow-up to her bestselling novel, The Coldest Winter Ever, is another gritty coming-of-age tale, picking up the story of Midnight (a character in Coldest Winter) as he tries desperately to navigate American culture, Brooklyn streets and the dicey business of growing up. The novel begins as seven-year-old Midnight and his pregnant mother, Umma, are forced to leave their privileged life in Sudan for a hardscrabble American existence. Midnight spends his formative years in Brooklyn guiding and translating for his loyal, loving and talented mother, helping her get a factory job while encouraging her to start a clothing line. Eventually, Midnight starts working at a Chinatown fish shop, finds love, joins a dangerous hustler's basketball league and tries to disentangle his ambivalent feelings toward romance, family and personal honor. Souljah's sensitive treatment of her protagonist is honest and affecting, with some realistic moments of crisis. Unfortunately, a slack plot and slow pacing cause serious bloat, and Souljah's distinctive prose is woefully unpolished. Frustrations aside, Souljah has obvious talent and sincere motives, making her a street-lit sophomore worth watching. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
Verdict: Just as Sister Souljah set the bar for quality urban fiction almost a decade ago with her groundbreaking classic, The Coldest Winter Ever, her new installment to the Winter Santiaga story raises the bar for the genre again. Tenderly yet honestly written and illustrated with striking photographs depicting the main characters, this multimodal book deserves to be studied for its cultural importance in high school English classes throughout America and promises to be edifying readers for years to come. Essential; buy multiple copies to be shelved as YA and/or adult fiction. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/08.] Background: In this prequel to TCWE, readers get the full backstory of Midnight, the elusive yet intensely loyal right-hand man to Ricky Santiaga, Winter's drug kingpin father. With connections to upper-class Africa and inner-city America, Midnight knows what it means to be an outsider. Growing up in Sudan, Midnight is raised as a skilled warrior by his father, a high-ranking political figure. When war breaks out, Midnight's family flees to America, but his father stays behind. Now the man of the family at the tender age of 13 and living a private, Sudanese lifestyle in the projects of Brooklyn, Midnight works to get out of the hood, educates himself, trains in martial arts, and fearlessly guards his pregnant mother and young sister. He eventually falls in love with a beautiful artist, whose culture is interwoven with his own. Midnight's adolescent years are an authentic testament to the rigors of reconciling an immigrant identity with an American experience.-Vanessa J. Irvin Morris, Drexel Univ., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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