One of my favourite movies growing up (growing older but already above the age of 18...) was the Australian film, The Boys. It's a heavy film with a heavy theme - but a subtler theme that (maybe?) is more confronting than the murder-rape crime alluded to throughout, is the self-perpetuation of that mixing-pit of adversity, low socio-economic status, crime and violence. One brother is fighting against that life, only to be convinced that his new partner (a snob in the eyes of the family) is actually exploiting him by helping him obtain an underpaying job. His reply to the argument that minimum wage is 450 a week is something like "they fiddle with the figures -- they'd have you thinking everyone was a bloody millionaire". This simple scene is pretty amazing to me - it brings together feelings of humiliation, distrust, confusion, manipulation, the power struggles, and identity crises of folks wanting to change their lot. This is a suburban Australian family whose disadvantage comes down to money and class.
J.M. Holmes's book of featurettes, centred around the life of Gio, a half-white african-american, and his neighborhood friends as they progress from adolescence to adulthood, brings together those same elements of poverty, class and crime, with the ever-breathing spectre of racism. The dynamics of race in America are not easy to holistically understand on this side of the world, but the racial spike added to the poverty concoction feels authentic and it's uncomfortable to accept. There's never a clean break as each character tries to save themselves from the pre-destined struggle to be on the wrong side of the law and the poverty line. You get an honest job at the fire department only to be treated unfairly by your boss, and you can't live off the wage so you continue to take opportunities to sell drugs, because that at least gives you some hope of rising above your status. You get a payout from the death of your father, whose NFL career has had the end result of leaving you fatherless rather than guaranteeing you a different life, only to blow most of it on drinks to impress a group of shallow girls. A group of frat boys accidentally scratch a car on your street, and you can't pass up the opportunity to try and dupe some money out of them. You're able to obtain a college education, but now your friends and family judge you for looking down on them or for blaming your situation on the systemic problems in society. Whenever you do find warmth in relationships, you end up sabotaging it because you've spent your life overcoming undercurrents of hatred by depending only on yourself. Holmes paints it all without clear morals, without judgment or even reflection. It leaves you amidst that discomfort and it makes you feel like there's a problem. The characters aren't the ones driving their unhappy fates.
Some praise for Holmes (the kind you read in the blurb of a book) has been that he is a voice 'needed' in this generation, and I could agree with this. Overall, these characters aren't the kind you barrack for. The treatment of women is pretty horrible, and one story in particular, Be good to me?, was fairly distressing, but still this kind of book does feel important.
It was the second book listed for the Some More Books podcast of Katy Stoll.
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