Customer Reviews

Everyday Life

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

EVERY DAY LIFE is the true story of a young man's out-of-place experiences as he journeys toward reaching his pinnacle. The uniqueness of EVERY DAY LIFE is that it is a play. Hardie sets the scenes, exposes the plot and encourages readers to interact with the characters. The main character, 'L' is a young African-American man living in one of the forgotten ghettos of America. He was steps away from a lucrative career in sports, when an unjust prosecution landed him in prison and relegated him to harsh ghetto life. He now struggles with drugs, gangs, and dramatic friends.

In the company of three male buddies and several female friends, 'L' spends his days smoking, for perspective, and delving into endearing games of the 'The Dozens'. But that wears thin and 'L' realizes there is something better for him; he makes a life-altering metamorphosis.

EVERY DAY LIFE is contemplative as it shares the lives of these four men and how they relate to love, societal expectations, and self-worth. The influence of the hip-hop generation is very visible as their conversations visit occurences in every day life. This story gets its energy from the great strides Hardie made in his life, and his insatiable desire to depict urbanism with a positive twist.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

MG Hardie's "Everyday Life" is a short play about four friends, L, C, E, and B as they sit around in one their apartments and shoot the breeze. They discuss a little bit of everything - everyday life.

It wasn't long before I found myself pulling up one of the non-matching chairs from the Rent-for-Less kitchen table and having a seat with them. I even threw in my two cents a few times and cracked some jokes!

"Everyday Life" is an interesting, often comical exploration. I recommend "Everyday Life."

Reviewed by: Marcella

Every Day Life by M. G. Hardie is a short play where we are introduced to four friends who share laughs, tears, hardships and camaraderie. The descriptions of the characters and settings make you believe that you are actually sitting in the living room with them having a smoke session and delving into unchartered territories.

While these men sit and ponder what the world has become, they also reminisce about previous relationships, hardships and status. Remaining objective at all costs, they start shooting the dozens and even though the reality of their conversation is serious they remain upbeat and share some laughs as well.

This short play is very realistic and will have you paying close attention the next time you find yourself in a session amongst friends. I recommend this book to readers of all genres that enjoy looking through others eyes and trying to visualize what they see. I would love to see this play performed.

Reviewed by: Cheryl H
APOOO BookClub

In M. G. Hardie's debut release, EveryDay Life, he takes the reader on a daunting rollercoaster ride through the philosophic and moral ghost towns long since abandoned by the old-guard black intelligentsia (for the more profitable profession of public rabble-rousing and stylized television appearances, of course) in order to lay bare the drama of four invisible desperados.

L, C, E, and B are the main players in this (awkwardly) dramatic play about life in urban America. Hardie's characters are confused, disenchanted, scared, and spiritually adrift in a dissonant sub-culture shot-through with soul death and perennial despair, all undermined by economic failure - which paradoxically paralyzes and informs much of any possibility of a brighter future.

EveryDay Life raises critical questions, presents relevant commentary, and at least attempts to deliberate and wrestle with complex matters. But Hardie is too pessimistic and antagonistic with the current state of black America, and is therefore unable to move beyond the often limiting mentality of 'hood intellect in order to grapple in a sustained manner the possibility hope. He certainly is conscious of their social predicament, analyzing it from top to bottom, left to right, but seemingly gets lost and stranded in his own sardonic conclusions that the devil is stronger than a man. For him, the problems confronting America are full of scandalous conspiracies, deeply entrenched in systemic racism, black ignorance, and moral unaccountability. The following passage bears this out:

"These mo-fo's can rescue you in a foreign country in the middle of a war but can't save people of color in their own city. I realized a long time ago that they just don't want us. I think I was about five. ... We're already in chains. People say start with the children, and that's because children can't vote. We should start with the parents. Teaching them and holding them accountable. Every time our people go out in pajamas, draw -in their eyebrows, or post ass shakin' videos, the people in power know we aren't paying attention to them."

Hardie gets so caught up in observations of the psycho-drama that he never truly moves beyond the store-front preachment to realize the more desperately urgent call for swift action and immediate change. There is examination of the problems, but no solutions to the the problems. This is why we could never compare his play to the more balanced ones of Hannsberry, Miller, or even such contemporaries like the brilliant Tyler Perry because - unlike Hardie, these gifted story-tellers ultimately move beyond the pitiable reality to imagine the possibility of hope: Even in the face of shame, guilt, and humiliation (not to mention the pervasive matter of the overbearing matriarch), still, Walter Younger reclaimed his dignity and moved his family away from the slums of southside Chicago; Tyler Perry never loses sight of religious faith, spiritual healing, and the need for soul redemption; and, even though Willie Loman is suicidal and tragically obsessed with the question of greatness, Miller delivers a pragmatic lesson on social misconceptions and self-knowledge, and offers a profound critique on the fallacies of (unattainable and unrealistic) capitalistic pursuits. Hardie excites us with witty (and humorous) statements regarding the temporal shifts in black music, but refuses to linger on complex matters, ultimately leaving them untreated, unexplored, and unanswered:

"I believe in the reason for rap. I believe it started before most of our ancestors were dragged to America and intensified by the slave's troubles. Original rappers like Wheatley, Dunbar, and Brooks allowed our concerns to be read and shared. Early on Cab Calloway did scat to music. In the 60s Cool G rap made it popular, youthful. In the 70s, we had money so we danced instead of rioting over our disappearing public spaces. Urban pioneer DJ Kool Herc turned everywhere we went into a party."

Is this the best treatment of rap music chronology that Hardie could muster? And what has rap, slavery, Cab, Cool G, and the 60s and 70s to with anything? What has having money in the 70s to do with dancing? What about "our disappearing spaces"? Is this a critique of the emergence of the hip hop culture? I don't know.

In a time of gang violence, high incarnation rates of black men, and inner-city murder rates, Hardie makes an interesting resolution to the problem at hand:

"They have made the wrong things dependent on each other. Get rid of crime, and you won't need lawmakers or police. Think about your own answer as to why we have more senseless killing than those uncivilized parts of the world."

It would be great if Hardie could be more specific on exactly how he defines "uncivilized parts of the world," especially as an American. But is this really a practical solution to the gun problem? Perhaps it is because they cannot afford guns. America is a capitalist system that exploits anything for profit. Perhaps those in Venezuelan ghettos (for instance) may not have easy access to the guns. So, Third World-like ghettos are certainly no more moral than Americans, but rather they perhaps can not afford to buy the weapons needed to be better criminals. By the way, Somalian guerillas are well armed, got pirates, and are a criminal force to be reckoned with. But I guess it's still a question of whether or not their killing sprees make sense.

Hardie's book may go down in history as a bona fide hip hop play (as some have suggested). From corporal punishment to Eugenics, to black music and hip hop, Hardie puts forth an honest and deeply intellectual effort to raise critical issues, and make us think about the world we think we know. But the potential of the book only lies in its revelation of the issues affecting the under-represented - from the critical perspective of someone who has "been there, done that." But so what. Even the Chinese are aware of black ghetto life....and they love hip hop too. But where is the pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow? (A tragic tale that doesn't have a happy ending with redemption, triumph, and perserverance will not make it to the Oprah Book Club.)

With EveryDay Life, we get a birds-eye view into the complex lives or inner-city black men (Ellis Cose's "envy of the world"), and we get to see "what's goin' on" and how they cope. But that's all they are doing. Coping.

The personalities of the cast jump out at you. I think I have someone in my life who's just like each of them. Very nicely written.

Everyday Life allows readers to exist in a day and life of four African-American males. Showing that despite of some of the senseless decisions the characters have chosen to make, they themselves have more sense than some people that dwell outside of the ghetto and/or have never smoked marijuana. All conversations are hilarious but most of the conversations held are on point and are subjects that need to be visited by Americans in whole. With humor, M.G. Hardie provokes critics to think outside of the box and see another side of the hood. Everyday Life demands a respect for African American men struggling to get out of the hood or making an attempt to raise the expectation of, "Boys in * the hood".

L, my favorite character, brings a level head to the table as he goes in and out of scenes. With every entrance L offers wisdom and encouragement to the friends that he so humbly allows to stay in his one bedroom apartment, even while he is out earning a honest living. L displays the attributes of a true friend; this also gives readers an insight to the fact that every male in the ghetto is not a cocaine dealer or some ruthless thug conditioned by the environment they exist in. In fact L, is an advocate of education and although society has deemed him useless, he is determined to prove he is far from the idea. Believing that having a degree is a key to having the "American Dream", he decides to enroll in school and encourages his friends to do likewise. As with other examples of integrity such as being an active father in his daughter life, working, living outside his mothers home, his friends mock and tries to discouraged him but L remained a solid character affirming that without a doubt a determined mans mind can not be shook. I look forward to reading about the successes of L's life in future books.

L, E, C, and B are characters that any reader can learn to appreciate, even if only for the laughter they deliver in every scene. I hated to see this book end.

EveryDay Life, by MG Hardie, is a snapshot of African-Americana. This book can make you shudder because of its harshness and nod because of the universal truths. Many of the verbal exchanges between the characters are the same ones I experienced with the men I grew up around. I even had some of the conversations found in EveryDay Life with my college roommates -- almost word for word. That's how genuine the dialogue is in this book.

C and L are room mates. L was a promising star basketball player whose college hoop-dreams are cut short by a false conviction. L slowly grows to desire more from life than the everyday rut he and his friends are in. His desire for a better life includes the elevation of this three friends to not only a higher standard of existence but also more mature level of critical thinking.

C is lazy. He sleeps in late everyday, spends his waking hours smoking marijuana and has no qualms about receiving government aid for once being a Naval officer. C justifies it because it's the path of least resistance. The crew is rounded out by E and B. E stays in a broke-down motor home in the vacant lot adjacent to L's apartment. B is the youngest of the crew and drops by to check on his friends from time to time.

L and his comrades find solace from the stressors of their Long Beach, California, neighborhood in L's one bedroom apartment. This is where they join in a cipher over blunts and Kool Aid. To the uninitiated, a cipher is a message written in a code. To be clear, a cipher is also a circle of discussion where each participant adds onto what it being discussed. Once you begin to understand the relationship between the men, you also begin to understand that they need each other. They are more of a family to each other than they are to their blood relatives. MG's mastery of witticisms and reasonings, and will keep you entertained and deliberating at the same time.

Intertwined with the wisecracks is social anaylsis. The crew discuss diverse subjects that are common talking points within the African-American community. They cover interracial dating to the evolution of Hip Hop into Gangsta Rap to AIDS being manufactured to infect minorities and the poor and much more. Nothing is off-limits nor left unexplored. The duality of comedy and philosophy had me at times shaking my head in laughter and at other times nodding in contemplation.

Reviewed by Joey Pinkney Dot Com
Book Reviewer

Everyday Life is just what the title says. It touches on so many issues about life that you get lost in the discussions. Hardie is hard core when it comes to telling it like it is. Not only does he speak from the African American point of view, he makes sure he tells it how we see it. Each page is filled with truth, passion, and reality. The characters are more then relatable, you know someone just like them. Reading Everyday Life was not only a fresh breath of air; it felt good to have a new voice for our people. From politics, relationships, education, the hood, to the nature of our world were all expressed in depth. You will praise these characters; you will laugh at them, relate to them, and wish you were in the book just to say your two cents. M G Hardie is a talent within it self. I strongly encourage you to get Evert Day Life, take in the message and embrace it. It is a must read. Mr. Hardie you get five stars from AAMBC.


Tamika Newhouse
AAMBC Reviewer

Every Day Life by M.G. Hardie is a short play that follows four friends through life's good times, bad times, and even worse times. The friends sit, smoke, and talk about what the world has become, and they reminisce about people who were once with them, but have since moved on. Even when their topics turn dark, their moods remain lighthearted, and they use laughter and marijuana as a means to cope with it all.

Every Day Life provides the reader with a realistic look into the lives of four men in the 90's. The social, political, and familial issues that are discussed between the characters are on point with what was happening during that era, and M.G. Hardie does a fantastic job of presenting the play in a most realistic light. The characters are well developed and are shown in a manner in which they are each different from each other, yet alike in many ways. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy realistic Urban Fiction.


Brooke Carleton
Apex Reviews

In EVERYDAY LIFE M. G. Hardie gives women something they have been looking like for years: an in-you-face view into the mind of a man.

The characters show the breadth and depth of men, showing how they are alike and even different in so many ways. Forget what you have been told. If you really want to know what a man thinks or would do in a situation that is presented to him, you have to read this book.