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Sparkle (0)
I won’t lie. I avoided seeing the movie Precious like the plague (and it had nothing to do with Mariah Carey’s unibrow). I knew the movie would be terribly sad, and I just wasn’t sure I could put myself through it. When movies are sad, and sad because of social, political, historical and/or economic issues I feel powerless to change, it throws me off for weeks. I really didn’t want a repeat of the Hotel Rwanda, The Constant Gardner or Life is Beautiful incidents. (I’ll avoid the really dirty details, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my fellow theatergoers asked for refunds because of my loud sobbing through Life is Beautiful.)
However, I also appreciate powerful literature, so when the opportunity arose to read Sapphire's latest novel, I jumped on it.
The Kid explores the life of Abdul Jamal Louis Jones as he struggles after the AIDS-related death of his mother, Precious (the basis of Sapphire’s first novel Push). The reader follows The Kid* as he bounces around from foster homes, group homes and other far-less-than-ideal living situations in his journey from boy to manhood.
I consider myself an open-minded person. It’s hard to pursue a Master’s degree in English without encountering texts that you don’t necessarily like or feel comfortable with. As a writer, I’ve also sat through many workshops in which writing was discussed and evaluated that could be raw and dark.
However, despite my experience and history, I found The Kid to be an incredibly difficult read. There are many graphic scenes involving sex, violence, child abuse, sexual abuse and even bodily functions. While I understand their place in illustrating the horrors of the world and people’s experiences, I reached a time at which I felt enough was enough. The point had been made, and I no longer wanted to read such vivid and disturbing descriptions.
As these scenes went on, I also found myself beginning to lose faith in the credibility of the story. Bad, unimaginable things happen, but do they have to happen over and over again to the same character no matter where he or she goes? The sex and violence were ever-present, and on some level, their depictions began to feel self-indulgent and exploitative rather than revelatory or affective.
The Kid is also told in a stream of consciousness style that I found distracting and unpleasant. It is not my favorite writing style, and while I understand its employ to develop the voice of the main character, I did not enjoy it.
I tried to ignore the urge to place moral value or judgment on the main character, but even that was difficult as the story unfolded. I still can’t say whether I pity or despise Abdul Jones, but I felt that issues of consequence and accountability were not always addressed in a manner I found satisfactory.
When the book does reach for its moment of redemption, I felt somewhat satisfied, but I honestly don’t know if that’s because I needed to see more than anger and confusion from the main character or because I was happy the book was over.
I doubt I would recommend this book to a friend, and while it is somewhat haunting, I think that has more to do with the graphic nature of the storytelling rather than the power of the characters or themes explored in the novel.
*I identify the main character as “the kid” because the names he is called throughout the book change and are often tied to what is going on in the story at that given point and time.
