Helpful Score: 5
If you are a fan as I am of Pelecanos' work, this is very reminiscent style.
From an online review:
Ofelia Santoro is determined to save her runaway son, Gabriel, from the drug dealers whose turf is Philadelphia's Badlands. Every night she rides a bicycle up and down the inner-city streets searching for her son, and every night she passes the folk-art memorial created in homage to the children who die every day as a result of the drug wars--an unknown artist is spray painting the outlines of children's bodies in the middle of the street; eventually, the bodies will pile up at the doorstep of City Hall. Fourteen-year-old Gabriel would like nothing better than to go home to his mother, but he's in too deep. His promotion from lookout to crack dealer has come with a price. The ruthless gang leader is convinced that Gabriel has been skimming profits, and it's payback time. First-novelist Lopez, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, siphons off the power of his eloquent images and his gritty sense of place with a slapstick subplot involving some bumbling thieves. This one lacks the intensity of Richard Price's Clockers (1992) and the lyricism of Jess Mowry's books; however, Lopez's Philadelphia is a marvel, its ruined streets and decaying infrastructure drawn with a delicate precision
From an online review:
Ofelia Santoro is determined to save her runaway son, Gabriel, from the drug dealers whose turf is Philadelphia's Badlands. Every night she rides a bicycle up and down the inner-city streets searching for her son, and every night she passes the folk-art memorial created in homage to the children who die every day as a result of the drug wars--an unknown artist is spray painting the outlines of children's bodies in the middle of the street; eventually, the bodies will pile up at the doorstep of City Hall. Fourteen-year-old Gabriel would like nothing better than to go home to his mother, but he's in too deep. His promotion from lookout to crack dealer has come with a price. The ruthless gang leader is convinced that Gabriel has been skimming profits, and it's payback time. First-novelist Lopez, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, siphons off the power of his eloquent images and his gritty sense of place with a slapstick subplot involving some bumbling thieves. This one lacks the intensity of Richard Price's Clockers (1992) and the lyricism of Jess Mowry's books; however, Lopez's Philadelphia is a marvel, its ruined streets and decaying infrastructure drawn with a delicate precision
The great L.A. Times columnist (former Time mag & Phila. Inquirer) writes a wonderful book as well.
This is a gritty and heartbreaking book. Steve Lopez writes vividly. It is well worth the time.
