Night Journey: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

Murad Kalam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Not since Richard Wright's Native Son has the education of a young man been rendered as daringly, defiantly, and emotionally galvanizingly as in Murad Kalam's Night Journey.

Night Journey is the story of Eddie Bloodpath, beautiful, oversized, awkward child of South Phoenix's Third Ward. Hefty and handsome, quiet and strong like his long-lost father, Eddie is the good son, seemingly immune to the powerful pull of the streets. His older brother, Turtle -- a frail, stuttering, grammar school dropout who was born to hustle -- isn't convinced that Eddie will stay out of trouble. Acting on instinct, Turtle plucks Eddie from the brink of the urban abyss and delivers him to the boxing gym.

A perpetual innocent and reluctant pugilist, Eddie is adopted by a rogues' gallery of melancholy prizefighters, artful hustlers, strung-out mystics, pubescent crack lords, and drunken burnouts. He falls in love with Tessa, a hauntingly beautiful prostitute with whom he shares an unspeakable secret. Waiting in the wings is Marchalina, Eddie's high school crush, a privileged, bookish, North Phoenix girl who could save him from his worst instincts.

When a senseless murder and its aftermath send Eddie running from the sun-washed landscape of the American Southwest, he tries to fight his way to safety -- first in Chicago, at the national amateur competition, and then in the surreal underworld of Las Vegas professional boxing. Rushing pell-mell toward manhood, Eddie must discover where his true allegiances lie.

An American odyssey, Night Journey is a first novel equally remarkable for its raw power and wise empathy, borne up by Murad Kalam's unshakable belief in the ultimate grace of humanity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The gritty South Ward of Phoenix, Ariz., is the setting of this blistering coming-of-age debut, rich with the vernacular of inner-city life. Turtle, a lean, stuttering hustler, and Eddie, his strong, introspective younger brother, are dependent on each other for survival in the urban underworld they inhabit. When Turtle is 12 and Eddie is 10, their father abandons the family and the boys run wild. They set up camp in an abandoned house, fighting off attackers with sticks and knives. Turtle is already a pimp in training, running streetwalkers twice his age. When he recruits Tessa, a waif-like hooker, Eddie grows to love her. After Tessa is raped by Turtle's rivals, Eddie decides he must find a way off the neighborhood's mean streets. Turtle, seeking to prevent Eddie from following in his footsteps, convinces a local boxing coach to train the boy, the first step to his becoming a Golden Gloves champion. A future of riches and fame seems a possibility, but that dream fades as Eddie succumbs to the allure of petty scams and easy sex. Turtle, meanwhile, kills a man, and Eddie seeks direction in the teachings of the Nation of Islam. A colorful supporting cast-Jules, a gay club owner; Detective Patricia, a no-nonsense cop; Minister Bilal, a dapper young Muslim leader-keeps this from becoming the usual sinner-to-saint yarn. Eddie's spiritual and emotional journey is convincingly rendered, and Kalam's sense of the grotesque gives the novel a vivid, fluorescent glow.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

At the start of this remarkably assured and tightly plotted first novel, Eddie and his older brother, Turtle, usurp a dead woman's house in their rough neighborhood in Phoenix (yes, Phoenix). Turtle soon begins pimping a young woman named Tessa, who lives in the house--until a rival gang rapes her while Eddie watches. From that point on, Turtle and Tessa weave in and out of Eddie's world as Eddie attempts to make a life for himself. He boxes, falls for a bright girl with a big vocabulary, and joins the Nation of Islam. Turtle falls into a life of hustling and gets sent to jail after copping a plea to a crime he didn't commit. But even as he grows to hate his brother, Eddie never forgets Tessa and never stops believing he can save her (and, in turn, that she can save him). Like Ali on the ropes in Kinshasa, Eddie is a compelling protagonist both for the beating he takes and for his wise perseverance. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743244184
• ISBN-13: 978-0743244183
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,460,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Inspired Work of Literature, October 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Night Journey: A Novel (Paperback)

An Amazing Novel and An Even More Amazing Debut. From the first sentence it is atmospheric and intense, dark, and intelligent. A joy to read.

The story focuses on two brothers raised by their mother in Phoenix's poor and desolate Third Ward. Eddie, the thoughtful and more sensitive brother will become a boxer, encouraged by his erratic hustler brother, Turtle. At its heart the novel is a story of growing up poor and Black in America and in that way reminiscent of Invisible Man, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The truly remarkable achievement of Night Journey, though, is that while the writing lives up to these weighty predecessors, the novel is itself an original and thoroughly modern addition to the line. And while it is the story of two boys, it is also in many ways a deeply insightful meditation on the state of race and poverty and meaning in America today.

I truly enjoyed this book, in fact, carried it with me everywhere reading any chance I had until I finished it. The characters are deeply understood and caringly rendered. Kalam exhibits both a deep sympathy for the people he writes about and a commitment to show them as they are, complicated, confused, and flawed. The characters stay with you, as if they are people you know. That I enjoyed this book, couldn't put it down, is testament to the strength of these characters because the novel deals with hard topics in an unflinching way. Prostitution, drug abuse, poverty, none are glamorized, are simply laid before the reader to view, to consider. But you care so much about the characters that you must deal with these difficulties simply because they must.

I can't recommend this novel enough. In a sea of the fluff published today, Kalam floats to the top, taking on hard issues through beautiful writing, creating a truly original and inspired work of literature.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, October 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Night Journey: A Novel (Paperback)

Night Journey is a compelling work of literature by a young author destined to become a literary star. In his remarkable novel, Kalam dares to go where few other writers have gone, using the Third Ward in Phoenix Arizona, an area where prostitution and drugs are rampant, as the setting for his novel. Night Journey beautifully tells the tale of Eddie Bloodpath, a young man who struggles to become a boxer in order to avoid a life of hustling and drug dealing. In addition to Eddie, Night Journey's cast of characters includes pimps, hustlers, drug dealers, and prostitutes- all of whom are depicted with a sense of tragic realism. Few other writers could have written about Phoenix's Third Ward with the same sense of grace and humanity. Although this book certainly deserves 5 stars, I'm withholding one star until the author writes a sequel finishing Eddie's tale.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Young Writer, December 14, 2004

By 

mpatel (washington, d.c.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Journey: A Novel (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which describes people, places, and events completely outside anything I have ever (or will ever for that matter) experience. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a gripping story.