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Born to one of the city’s most notorious crime families, Shai Clark has always managed to be a good kid. A college hoops star, Shai shunned the world that his father had created and focused on his dreams of going pro. Tommy, Shai’s trigger-happy older brother, is next in line for the throne and rules under his father through brute force. But Poppa has bigger plans for Shai. The situation soon turns ugly when Poppa is murdered and Tommy is removed from the equation. Suddenly Shai finds himself at the head of his father’s empire and the streets are thrown into chaos. It is then that he must decide whether to pursue his own dreams or put his father’s affairs in order. Unable to sit idly by while the Clark’s underworld empire is pillaged, Shai takes up his father’s mantle and brings the game to the streets. He quickly learns that there are two sides to every coin, and the streets hold no mercy for the weak. Hoodlum chronicles three genrations of Trinidadian immigrants and their rise to power in the New York City heroin trade. |
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1 response so far ↓
1 Daniel // Jan 22, 2008 at 6:18 am
K’wan might just be the Godfather of street fiction! Road Dawgz was action-packed with some great characters, but Hoodlum goes well beyond with a more developed plot and a cast of interesting characters. In this coming of age story, former college basketball star Shai Clark returns home after getting the boot from school for betting on his own games. Tommy Clark, Shai’s older brother, is playing a different game on the streets and plans on take over the family crime empire after Poppa Clark retires. Tommy’s temper fans the fire of an all-out street war between the Clarks and the Mafia. Shai goes against his father and Tommy to prove that he is a man and should be involved with family business. In between all of this action, Shai is hard at work in pursuing a new lover named Honey.
K’wan has created some strong characters in Hoodlum. Fans of the character Demon from Road Dawgs, now have two similar characters, Priest and Gator, who each are twice as nasty as Demon! K’wan is a natural storyteller, but the solid editing in Hoodlum brings more focus the to the details in the story.
The pacing of the story overall is fast, but most of the action takes place in the last quarter of the book. I enjoyed the buildup and getting to know all of the characters in the subplots, but by the middle of the book I wanted some serious action to start. It’s worth the wait though!
K’wan also has a great tribute to old school street fiction in his acknowledgements:
If you already have read this book, you may want to also check out Baby Brother by 50 Cent and Noire.
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