Night Journey
A Novel
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Not since Richard Wright's Native Son has the education of a young man been rendered as daringly, defiantly, and emotionally galvanizingly as in Murad Kalam's Night Journey.
Night Journey is the story of Eddie Bloodpath, beautiful, oversized, awkward child of South Phoenix's Third Ward. Hefty and handsome, quiet and strong like his long-lost father, Eddie is the good son, seemingly immune to the powerful pull of the streets. His older brother, Turtle -- a frail, stuttering, grammar school dropout who was born to hustle -- isn't convinced that Eddie will stay out of trouble. Acting on instinct, Turtle plucks Eddie from the brink of the urban abyss and delivers him to the boxing gym.
A perpetual innocent and reluctant pugilist, Eddie is adopted by a rogues' gallery of melancholy prizefighters, artful hustlers, strung-out mystics, pubescent crack lords, and drunken burnouts. He falls in love with Tessa, a hauntingly beautiful prostitute with whom he shares an unspeakable secret. Waiting in the wings is Marchalina, Eddie's high school crush, a privileged, bookish, North Phoenix girl who could save him from his worst instincts.
When a senseless murder and its aftermath send Eddie running from the sun-washed landscape of the American Southwest, he tries to fight his way to safety -- first in Chicago, at the national amateur competition, and then in the surreal underworld of Las Vegas professional boxing. Rushing pell-mell toward manhood, Eddie must discover where his true allegiances lie.
An American odyssey, Night Journey is a first novel equally remarkable for its raw power and wise empathy, borne up by Murad Kalam's unshakable belief in the ultimate grace of humanity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The gritty South Ward of Phoenix, Ariz., is the setting of this blistering coming-of-age debut, rich with the vernacular of inner-city life. Turtle, a lean, stuttering hustler, and Eddie, his strong, introspective younger brother, are dependent on each other for survival in the urban underworld they inhabit. When Turtle is 12 and Eddie is 10, their father abandons the family and the boys run wild. They set up camp in an abandoned house, fighting off attackers with sticks and knives. Turtle is already a pimp in training, running streetwalkers twice his age. When he recruits Tessa, a waif-like hooker, Eddie grows to love her. After Tessa is raped by Turtle's rivals, Eddie decides he must find a way off the neighborhood's mean streets. Turtle, seeking to prevent Eddie from following in his footsteps, convinces a local boxing coach to train the boy, the first step to his becoming a Golden Gloves champion. A future of riches and fame seems a possibility, but that dream fades as Eddie succumbs to the allure of petty scams and easy sex. Turtle, meanwhile, kills a man, and Eddie seeks direction in the teachings of the Nation of Islam. A colorful supporting cast Jules, a gay club owner; Detective Patricia, a no-nonsense cop; Minister Bilal, a dapper young Muslim leader keeps this from becoming the usual sinner-to-saint yarn. Eddie's spiritual and emotional journey is convincingly rendered, and Kalam's sense of the grotesque gives the novel a vivid, fluorescent glow.
