by Austin Vail

Created on: February 11, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Sixteen-year old Steve Harmon is in prison and awaits his trial on felony murder charges regarding a botched holdup (turned murder) of a local store in his Harlem neighborhood. Prison is an extremely bad experience for the young Black man, as are his movements from jail to the courthouse. Guards taunt him about the possibility of life in prison and even the death penalty. Kathy O'Brian, Steve's defense attorney, coaches him on how to say the things he needs to say for acquittal. Meanwhile, Steve doubts his own innocence at times.

The association of Steve with Richard Evans (Bobo) and James King, the two men who committed the robbery turned murder, is highly important during the trial. O'Brian tries very hard to keep the association as distant as possible, but Steve doubts that she believes in his innocence. The idea that he is a monster haunts Steve.

The prison and legal systems are revealed in their ugly realities through this story. Being young, male and Black is hard enough without the pressures of a life-changing courtroom and jail cell experience, the tears and concerns of family pressing down and an ultimate doubt of one's own innocence. How close does Steve get to the crime? This is the critical question to be answered. His life depends on the answer, as perceived by the jury, but however this turns out, it is certain that Steve's life has already been irrevocably changed, and not for the better.

Myers writes about the brutal truths that exist in today's world for young Black men, but this reader got the sense that the systems treat everyone equally as bad. If there's any moral lesson to this, it is to stay as far away from prison and the legal systems as possible. Yet can anyone do this with a level of assurance that the systems won't suck them in and destroy life? Also, once touched, will one come out, no matter what the verdict, without having paid a dear price? The message is clear and undeniable that an amount of payment will always be due.

The novel offers no solutions to these problems. It is a composite of real people in real life situations, dramatized and stylized into a coherent whole. Myers leaves the questions dangling for the reader to consider, and shows in vivid close-ups what can, and does, happen every day to everyday people caught up in circumstances over which they have minimal control.

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