Customer Reviews

B-Boy Blues (A B-Boy Blues Novel #1)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Seriously sexy? Fiercely funny? Only if you find self-righteous, pontificating queens, and gay wannabe homeboyz either sexy, or funny. I sure didn't. Maybe if the writing was better, and Hardy was capable of describing his characters without just naming some celebrity they supposedly resemble(also note how many characters happen to share names with celebrities), and if the characters had some depth or nuance to their personalities instead of just left over stereotypes, it might have been interesting. The writing is so poor that he's stuck reusing certain expressions(dayaamn!, jood, kissed dooown, gagged)so often that I swear when you close your eyes you can still see them burned into your retinas for several seconds afterwards. Let me breakdown the characters for you. The gay men are either screaming queens, or closeted gangstas. Oh, and, SHHH! Please don't tell the author that his characters are queens because evidently none of the books characters seem to realize they're queens. Nobody in Mitchell's office knows that he's gay? Puh-leaze, this flamer would have set off the fire alarms as soon as he stepped into the building. Pookie? Lil Bit? I gagged. The white males are either evil, or spineless. And the other characters? Well, there aren't any other characters really. The plot? Plucky achiever falls for a strong black man who must overcome his street hardened sense of himself, and learn to listen to his heart to become his true strong, but sensitive man he really is. Change the gender of the plucky achiever to a woman and the strong black man to a blue-collar white guy and you've got a Lifetime channel movie of the week. In between times the characters talk about how the man is keeping them down. Although they deal constantly with racism, strangely homophobia never seems to cross their paths except for when it comes FROM a gay white guy. What planet is James Earl Hardy on? It's not worth slogging through all of this just for a couple of halfway decent erotic passages.

B-Boy Blues by James Earl Hardy was a whirlwind of FANTASY, not fiction - there is a difference. I would have had an easier time believing unicorns were running around the streets of New York on Gay Pride, than I did following the on-again, off-again love tale of Pooquie and his Little Bit (or is that Little Bit**?). James Earl Hardy attempts to weave a star-crossed urban love story complete with "roughneck" Raheim and his uptown girl, the 'enlightened and educated' Mitchell Crawford. Believe me when I say I have used those terms as generously as possible. In doing so, however, what the reader enounters is nothing more than an at times stereotypical character lacking any true depth who falls in love with an effeminate, yet militant GBM who does nothing to impress me as I read on and on of his whoas at his job. I gave this book a rating of 1 star merely because there was not a lesser alternative. Hardy would best be served subtitling this piece a 'seriously sad and stereotypical, fiercely fantasic, Black-on-Black fairy tale'. I found nothing "jood" about this book, with the exception of the ending.

Oh my my my, how horrible! This was my first time reading a book about gay people, be it man, woman, black or white. I am a black female and I have too many gay male friends to ever count, and I do love them all, and I do not think they would appreciate this portrayal of their lives and characters. Beyond the actual finishing of this book there was another jood thing, that at times you forgot they were men, they were just people with issues. That concludes the praising session.

The rest of this was terrible! Mitchell was a fool, flat out, Raheim was just plain scary. Their relationship was not a 50/50 partnership, Raheim used Mitchell, hello. All he did was lay up in his house, leave a mess, and pay no rent. Also certain things that should have been delved into just weren't, did Raheim's mother know he was gay? Did his son know? Did his baby's mama know? Did he ever plan on paying rent? Mitchell on the other hand was a human doormat, and let's be real, anyone who allows someone to treat them like that in their personal life will not stand up for themselves like that at work. Also Mitchell dropping his friends and familial contacts when triflin Raheim came into his life and that is just plain DUMB! Their relationship lacked any substance and at times they seemed just [unbelievable]. Basically what was the point of the whole thing? Hmm, no answer? Thought so!

My sister gave me the book as a Xmas present last year. I've read it 5 times, and everytime it gets "jooder." Raheim reminds me of me (I'm a bald ebony brutha, got a son, and work as a mailman), and my shorty is a compact cutie just like Mitchell. We been together three years and our lives are just like the characters -- dealing with class issues, family, friends, death, violence, falling in love, and having some damn jood sex (ain't it funny how heteros can have all the sex they want in books and no one complains, but as soon as two bruthaz get their groove on, folks get uptight?). It's like JEH has been spyin' on us! The story is DA REAL THANG. The only fantasy, myth, and stereotype has been created by folks who don't know how to read a book in context and make ridiculous comments about an experience they know nothing about. Don't diss the author because u can't hang, aight? JEH, don't u worry: the real bruthaz who know what time it is got yo' back! Thanks for givin' us somethin' to call our own. U DA MAN!!!

James Earl Hardy, you go boy!!! I really loved B-BOY BLUES. It deserves a 12+!! At times, it was absolutely hilarious and at other times, it heartbreaking and sad. I read the book in a day and a half! Although I'm neither male or gay, I found myself relating to Mitchell (a.k.a. Little Bit) and Rahiem (a.k.a. Pooquie). My first boyfriend reminded me so much of Pooquie because he always had a "hard" exterior around friends but showed me the real person that he was inside. I also really loved this book because I found myself forgetting that the characters were two men. In reality they were two people going through the same ups and downs, good times and bad times as anyone else in a relationship. It was a true love story that had me captivated from the time I picked the book up until I finished it. I would recommend this book to anyone to read. It was "ALL JOOD!!!" I can't wait to read all of James Earl Hardy's other books!! I know they'll be "ALL JOOD" too!!!!!!

I think Hardy has read Terry McMillan's "Disappearing Acts" one too many times. A friend raved about the book, and gave it to me to get my opinion. It was a real let down. Authors shouldn't fall in love with their characters, and Hardy clearly has. Raheim is so perfect I half expected him to ascend bodily into heaven at the end. These characters are all smart, accomplished, good looking, and financially secure, and all they do is complain(at least that part is realistic). It's filled with stereotypes, even though it preaches against them. He uses the same phrases over and over again, until you never want to see "jood", or "gagged", or "kissed down", again in your life. And the man has some serious black/white issues(I won't even go there). I know this is his first novel and maybe the next ones will be better. In that case someone will have to tell me about it because I won't be finding out first hand. Instead of reading this stuff people should check out the novels of E. Lynn Harris, or better yet James Baldwin.

I read this book on the suggestion of one of my students. The subject -- love and passion between two black men -- is an important and underrepresented one. Most of the dialogue Hardy uses is true to the common speech of the gay black community, and his descriptions of the men therein are right on. Although I found them irritating, I can overlook his excessive use of parentheses and his abuse of platitudes to say the writing is fairly good, though a bit simplistic. What I cannot overlook is the blatant racism contained within these pages. Hardy goes way beyond black-pride when he generalizes and condemns all white people (to the point where Black folk get a capitol "B" but white people aren't deserving of that "W"). Hardy's characters see bigotry in everything. White people swat flies - FLIES ARE BLACK and thus it is just another example of the white man keeping the black man down! Prejudices are real and prevalent enough without Hardy's delusional creations. The story is good and the characters are interesting; however, the shortcomings of the book are such that I would not recommend it to anyone with either a social conscience or true literary sense.

I have read this book a dozen times and still laugh and cry my way through it. James Earl has a way with words that bring his characters to life. Not once have I become bored with any of the B-Boy books, in fact I have read each at least 3 times. Read the book for what it is, "A sexy, funny and loving book about two men in love with, and loving, each other".

I never thought a novel like this would be written. An honest portrait of young black gay life in the 1990s. So much of the so-called black gay literature is simply black gays writing for white gays. I'm so glad that this story is for "us."

Hardy's is an amazing writer. His words can leap off of the page and into your heart. His honesty is truly shocking at times, and I loved every minute of it. Both protaganist are wonderful and I feel as if I see people like them everyday. Also, Mitchell does a beautiful job of "reading" all those white gays out there who try to floss to brothers now that we are the flavor of the month. A must read, if you like books at all. Why the four stars, then? Because I wished the book never ended....

B-Boy Blues is interesting, if light reading. The writing is a bit immature and the plot a bit stretched in a few places. Nonetheless, I liked the characters, found them to be mostly believable, and was interested in their individual and group progressions through the book

I just ordered the next two books in this series by James Earl Hardy, which must say something.