The Residue Years

June 24, 2013
A Portland, Ore., family struggles to stay together despite the overwhelming effects of the crack epidemic in Jackson’s gritty autobiographical novel. Fresh out of her nth time in court-ordered rehab, Grace does everything she can to stay focused on the most important thing in her life—her three boys. No longer able to get the corporate jobs she had in the past, she toils at a fast-food restaurant and tries to avoid her old crowd so she can finally share a home with her children. Meanwhile, her eldest, Champ, deals the very thing that put his mother into rehab, so that he can give his family what he believes they deserve. He is intent on being his mother’s lifeline, providing her with a car and new clothes, while juggling college, his girlfriend, and his younger brothers. The narrative shifts between Grace and Champ as they stumble towards finding the right way to provide a home for the ones they love in a cycle that was designed for failure. At times, the pain and desperation of the family is swallowed by the overwritten prose. However, Jackson’s dedication to the shadows and unhappiness of his characters shines through at the crucial moments. Agent: Liz Darhansoff

July 15, 2013
The time Jackson chronicles here is indeed residue, particularly the little that remains of hope in the unforgiving life of a decaying urban neighborhood in Portland, Ore. Champ and his mother, Grace, know drugs. Champ eventually deals, and his mother uses and, now coming off a jail term, desperately wants to stay clean. Grace winds up getting a menial job, though she has to lie about her felony conviction to get it, and she looks for strength and guidance from her church. Her faith is tested, however, when Big Ken, the father of Champ's younger brothers KJ and Canaan, brings Grace to court because he wants sole custody. Grace starts using again and, by the end of the novel, even has to resort to selling herself to feed her habit. Champ is bright and wants to continue his college education, but he finds life on the streets seductive and compelling--and it's about all he knows. He has a girlfriend, Kim, whom he's made pregnant, though he has little compunction about being unfaithful to her. To make ends meet, he starts dealing again, constantly trying to outsmart the cops who are understandably skeptical about his roaming the streets at night. Eventually, he and Grace are both caught with some marijuana when Champ is driving her away from a sexual assignation. Throughout the bleak narrative, Champ and his mother alternate chapters as Jackson moves us from the harsh and bitter voice of Champ to the milder but no less desperate voice of his mother. A bleak and depressing--yet searingly forthright and honest--confrontation with the mean streets of urban decay.

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