Hood Rat

December 4, 2006
K'wan's latest (after Eve
) is a meandering trip across Harlem with plenty of pit stops for vice and violence. Yoshi is a stripper who prostitutes herself for extra cash; Rhonda is a promiscuous and abusive mother of three; Reese is a scabrous, demanding kept woman; and Billy is an attractive, sporty woman with a healthy distrust of the men who live in their Harlem 'hood. All of the women get sucked into drama involving neighborhood rappers, drug dealings, abortion, fistfights, catfights, shootings, rape, AIDS or good, old-fashioned drunkenness. There's a bevy of minor characters, each involved in intersecting subplots, though these don't so much coalesce as run their course. The most interesting story involves Paul, a man who's trying to go straight and become an artist, and who's also dating a respectable lawyer named Marlene, but things are destined to end badly. None of the characters rises above stereotype and the plotting is mechanical, but the big draw here is the electric prose, which is imbued with profane, comic lyricism.

January 1, 2007
What can you say about a book whose author thanks God and Mom for talent and support and whose opening line is "That's right, !@#$% DEGREES, &*() this )_+~!" Is that the sound of copies flying off the shelves or of Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin spinning in their graves? K'wan has published five other books (e.g., "Eve") and is on top of the street lit market, but this particular bookabout four female friends living in Harlemreads like a "Weird Al" Yankovic parody of a gangsta rap video. If the profanity were to disappear, the story of redemption trying to make its way to the surface would seem so thinly composed that it wouldn't be worth the price of admission. Not recommended, but there'll be demand from street lit fans anyway. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 8/06; extensive library outreach planned.]Larry Schwartz, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Moorhead

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