Some Amazon reviews of 'Homeboy' This chap does go slightly OTT:
Patrick O'Neil
5.0 out of 5 stars Jailhouse patois, junkie chit-chat, cop/criminal interactions, and love
April 3, 2013
Format: Hardcover
I was in New York, on 6th Ave, over by the Village, and my girlfriend Jennifer was, well, she was shopping because... ahhh, because it's New York and that's what she does when we're in NYC. And I was like, "no, no, no, not another trendy boutique, you're on your own." And she goes, "look, it's one of the real housewives of NYC, the cool one." Only I didn't know there were any cool ones, nor did I really know what the hell she was talking about, because when she goes all project runway and real housewives this and that she might as well be speaking in tongues and I don't know or care what the hell she's going on about as I don't watch that kinda bad tv and I'm always suspect of her that she does. Except when I turned around to say something to that affect she's already gone inside and I was all by myself standing on sidewalk wondering which overly dressed trendy woman was the "cool one" because, well, I don't know why? Only then there I was in front of a table full of used books and this tubby Rasta dude was smiling at me.
"Hey," I said, because I felt awkward and I'm slightly socially challenged.
"Buy dis book, mon," he said, handing it to me, never ceasing his huge smile.
I looked at the book in his hand, it was HOMEBOY by Seth Morgan. I'd never heard of it, but when I opened it and read the inside jacket flap: "From a unique new voice on the darker side of American fiction comes a remarkable debut novel of California's mean streets and prison yards." I was totally sold.
"How much, bro?"
"Five dolla, mon."
And yeah, it was NYC and he was selling used books on the street and I could've bargained him down a buck or two, but I just said yeah and handed him a five.
"Wha-da-ya got?" Asked Jenn.
"Bought a book," I said.
And that was it until about four months later and I was home in LA. And I was reading some book review my buddy Craig Clevenger posted on the internet about this guy Seth Morgan, and I was all, "hey, that's the book I bought in New York!" Uh huh. I really did. Well, books get me excited. But I still didn't read it as I was all wrapped up in another book, and it was in a series and, well, yeah. Segue to two weeks ago and I'm back in LA and I'm tired of reading books on my iPad. I mean it's great for travel and all, but I'm home, I want to feel paper and turn pages, and... so yeah, I looked in my book shelf and found HOMEBOY.
Now there are books with their own languages. Like Anthony Burgess' CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and James Joyce's FINNEGANS WAKE, the later of which I must confess I've never been able to read, and hell, Patrick Sean O'Neil and all, I'm Irish enough to brogue with the best of the thick micks. It's just too dense, and convoluted for me to understand (I can be a tad dumb at times). But what I'm getting at here is Morgan's HOMEBOY is in itself in another language, only I know this one well, because I speak it. It's like Morgan's singing my tune. And then on further inspection I discover it's about San Francisco. And he's included the top food groups: heroin, strippers, crime, North Beach, jail, prison, and love - that were the mainstay diet of my quarter century SF experience.
I mean like Morgan's got it down. Jailhouse patois, junkie chit-chat, cop/criminal interactions, and the craziness that only two addicts in love can provide. It was like he'd been there with me. Only Morgan's version is definitely a story - plots, and sub-plots, and full dimensional characters. How I'd never heard of this book before is beyond me. But I'm really glad I didn't go into the boutique with Jennifer that day in New York. I might have missed this book, which is truly special. And I don't say that about too many books.
2 people found this helpful
More my view:
R. douglas
5.0 out of 5 stars Wretched and Brilliant
December 8, 2004
Format: Paperback
Seth Morgans first and last completed novel is a simultaneously brilliant and uneasy read that like an addiction, first captivates then unravels itself until the reader is rendered helpless to its grimy power.
His story begins deep in the gut of a seedy San Francisco underbelly and ends up ensconsed in the heart of a prison hell. As the story unravels, we are introduced to a smorgasbord of whacked out, grimy, and tragic characters whos' tales gather around us to weave a web of terrifyingly real and sometimes disarmingly surreal situations. The story of 'Homeboy', if it is broken down to its core, is surprisingly simple, but it is told in a way that demands the reader to concentrate. Like the first minutes in a subtitled movie, we are forced to think hard about what we are reading.
But the beauty in 'Homeboy' lies not in the story, but the unbelievable use of the English language. His descriptions of seemingly simple places, people and events are described using words that a terrestrial author would never dream of using. And yet these descriptions paint a picture of incredible detail, you can almost physically smell the stench of wretched human lives steaming out between the cracks of Coldwater Prison and feel the warm chill of heroin as it is pumped through the brittle veins of 'Rings n Things'.
The fact that we will never have the honour of another complete book by Seth Morgan is tragic. But unlike Jeff Buckley and countless other gifted artists taken from us before their time, Seth's death seems somehow apt and befits the legacy of what he has left us described within the well thumbed pages of 'Homeboy'.
5 people found this helpful
This chap didn't like the end so much:
tolarjev
4.0 out of 5 stars It Sucked Me In
23 February 2012 - Published on Amazon.com
Verified Purchase
Normally I prefer a minimalistic writing style which doesn't interfere with the information the book is conveying. So when I started "Homeboy", where every sentence is embellished with adjectives, similes, obscure words, street jargon, and dialect, I thought "Whoa... can I handle 300+ pages of this?".
An example: "Smirkily the Fat Man surveyed the wreckage. He wagged his neckless glabrous head, shivering jowls talced like sugared aspic, and clucked his tongue, his standard expression of avuncular reproof for his girls' each peccadillo."
Within a few pages though, I was sucked into the plot and curious what would happen to the characters. The writing style was entertaining and seemed appropriate for the story involving murder, theft, and blackmail among hookers, pimps and drug dealers in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. As an obsessive Scrabble player, I enjoyed seeing words I had studied but hadn't seen in print such as "glabrous". But about half-way through the book, it started to drag. The tone shifted to wacky, and I could tell pretty much how it would all turn out. In retrospect, I'm glad I read it, but I would rate the first half with five stars and the second half with three.
4 people found this helpful
Given away many copies as not got them back and have to keep rebuying as want more people to read it.
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