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This is a book you are going to want to put down. It is going to be hard to read. It is going to be disturbing. It is going to break your heart. And it is necessary. The Kid by Sapphire is a brilliant, superbly written, gut-wrenching testament to those American lives that are often relegated to the shadows.
The Kid is the follow-up narrative to Push (the novel) and Precious (the movie). Push left us with main character, Precious, and her son, Abdul, taking their first steps toward a brighter future. The Kid allows us to re-enter their lives, this time from Abdul’s perspective.
Now a 9 year-old-boy, Abdul faces a life of unthinkable horrors. But this is his normal. This abuse, this loss, this destitution is his normal. We learn the rest of Abdul’s story, past and present, as he does. His great-grandma unfolds his family history piece by piece. We watch his life take shape as he grows from lost child at the St. Ailanthus School for Boys to a man trying to overcome a backbreaking past. The Kid begs us to bear witness to his pain and to stand in solidarity with his outrage.
Abdul’s story is the sad reality of the effects of generation after generation of abuse -- a first-hand perspective of a life lived falling through the cracks and a sad reminder that we each bear the pain of our parents’ wounds.
