Too Cool For Words (Way Past Cool - Jess Mowry)

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	Way Past Cool - Jess Mowry
Date:	29/07/04 (163 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great read

Disadvantages: none

Set in Oakland California this is the moving, dramatic and sad story of a group of teenagers caught up on the poverty and gang culture that accounts for the lives of many young black and Hispanic teenagers in America

The central characters in the story are 14-year-old gang leader Gordon and his other five gang members, Lion, Curtis and Ric and Rac who are twins. Their nemesis is the drug dealing Deek and his 16-year-old bodyguard Ty.

The first thing that strikes you about these characters is the age of them all, kids caught up in a scary adult world where guns are the currency of choice and the only certainty is that of an early death. Mowry cleverly paints the pictures in the readers mind of drive by shootings and police raids and then in the same sentence will remind you of the characters age by having them make their escape on skateboards.

Ty is only too aware of the fate ahead of him if he continues in the life he has chosen and is burdened with the bad example he is setting to his younger brother but unable to pull away from the money his work brings he spends his days drinking beer in an attempt to block out the pain of his existence while all the time Deek plots to extend his drug dealing empire no matter who gets in his way.

Deek has all of the trappings that make him a hero to the other youngsters in the ghetto, flash Trans Am, designer clothes and jewellery. He also has two policemen in his pocket who provide him with additional protection. You know that he is at the bottom of the drug-dealing ladder but this does not diminish the sense of threat and menace that he carries with him within the few small streets that are under his control.

Gordon and his gang have avoided the trappings of dealing drugs and falling into Deeks debt, battling to keep the two streets they call their turf free from the dealers and transients, for them the struggle is to stay alive and thoughts of getting an education are a long way fro
m their minds. Throughout the book there are some touching scenes, which shows the bond between the five friends as they try to understand the events that surround them following a drive by shooting which provides the opening scenes of the book.

This is a great read and one that I have enjoyed twice now, it is scary to see a way of life which you know exists and is often glamorised within film, TV and music, Mowry brings to life the stark horrors of a way of life where those involved are lucky to celebrate their 21st birthday. Mowry has a punchy style of writing and uses the language of the street to bring to life the characters in his work. He does not judge the people that he writes about, he leaves that to the reader to form their own opinions on whether their actions are justified or not.

Mowry was raised in Oakland and still lives there to this day, he is able to write with some authority about the street not only because it is where he lives but also because he himself worked on the streets as a teenager dealing pot, often referred to as time spent being the bodyguard to a dealer, Mowry tends to play down this description in his own narrative.

Other works by Mowry include Rats in the Trees, Children of the Night and Six out of Seven all centre on the drug culture amongst black youths while Way Past Cool has been made into a film.

Published by Chatto the retail price is £9.99 although on Amazon old copies can be picked up from as little as £2.75.

For more details on the author and to read some of his work on-line check out his website

http://timoun.tripod.com/jessmowry/index.html

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