Slipping

August 15, 2005
In this lacerating new work from the author of Triple Take, Donald Hakill is indeed slipping--from average high school kid to drug addict to murderer. It's astonishing how easy those steps are to take. Don's father committed suicide, wracked by the depression that comes with fighting America's racism daily, and his Chicago policewoman mother struggles to hold the family together. But Don links up with bad-girl Juanita, gets hooked on crack and crazed sex, and soon finds himself $400 in debt. And then Juanita betrays him, which leads to a spiral of violence that destroys everything. Moore, a onetime gang member who has lost family and friends to addiction and street violence, wrote this book to show how in recent decades crack addiction worked to destroy what little community poor urban African Americans could claim. It's extraordinarily gritty, edgy, foul-mouthed, sexually explicit, and brilliant, the sort of book you absolutely can't read and absolutely can't put down. And it's truly illuminating to anyone who grew up where the livin' is easy. Not for your gentle readers, but definitely for street lit, African American, and cutting-edge literary collections in public and academic libraries.--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2005
Moore gives some humanity to the crack epidemic. Donald Haskell is a 17-year-old kid who chooses hanging out with his friends and smoking weed over going to school. His mother is a Chicago police officer, and his 19-year-old sister, Rhonda, is a college student. At four years old, Don-Don found his father on the roof after his having committed suicide. His mother has tried to keep the family together, but it has not been easy. From shooting basketball to pool, Don-Don has always been a silver-tongued hustler. He meets his match when the smooth-talking Juanita convinces him to lace marijuana with crack. Overnight, their drug use is a full-blown addiction that has him isolated from his family and alienated from his friends. He resorts to unthinkable measures to get money for drugs because he knows the moment the drugs run out, so will Juanita. His dangerous and criminal behavior spirals out of control and eventually his actions cause deadly consequences for those he loves. A sad cautionary tale about an ugly urban epidemic. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)