DARK by Kenji Jasper |
| * * * (three stars) |
The boundary between Thai Williams' North West D.C. neighborhood is thicker than cracked pavement of O Street. It is a line of demarcation between white and black, right and wrong, light and dark. All it takes is one night, a memory of his girl in another man's arms and a gun that appears from nowhere to turn Thai's entire world inside out and force him to cross the line from light to dark.
Kenji Jasper carefully depicts Thai's world in a series of flashbacks interspersed throughout the novel with the all too real present. Through Thai's eyes the reader experiences life in the all black Shaw neighborhood of Washington DC, the struggles of a young boy growing up in an unforgiving world , but most importantly the reader experiences the split second emotions and remorse that accompany the killing of another human being.
Jasper carefully constructs his prose creating a story that reads like a memoir of teen and urban angst. It is his elaborate description that lures the reader into Thai's darkened world and shows even the most carefree of souls what it means to be "in the dark"
