Patches of Grey is a story in the tradition of the coming of age literature (think SE Hinton, or Catcher in the Rye) in an urban African American setting. Roy Pickering captures the angst of boys becoming men with the added complexity of race permeating events and the environment. The author does a remarkable job illustrating the internal dialogue and conflict all teenagers face as they struggle for identity, but from the perspective of a young black man. The gift is his ability to translate this conversation to a wider audience, to identify both common ground (girls, fathers, social strata) and also present differences that make one appreciate how race, culture, and familial relationships are perceived differently in different groups: e.g., the conflict between being all you can be, and being loyal to the group. The domestic violence was jarring, as was the relativity. Things were not good or bad, but better than or worse than. Is having an abusive father/husband (who cares for his family) better than having no father around at all? At least he is not as bad as . . . It is a world in which nothing is taken for granted, and nobody can really afford to be easy going. Seeming cool even carries a certain intense, deliberate and intentional quality. There is love, but very little is given at home or to others -- freely, generously, or without conditions. It is a lot of work, with a lot of stress hanging in the general atmosphere. On the other hand, there is a core element of pride, strength, survival and dare I say hope and change to the story. Nobody is a naive fool, or sucker. They are smart and strong characters who may not have started with a lot of advantages, but can take anything. There is something in them that will live on forever no matter what changes. I agree with others who have said this should be on the Junior High/High School reading list. (May have to edit some parts?) I think it could be so meaningful, and even change lives, with young readers at that point. In reading the book I found myself thinking that I really hope the author has son(s), coaches, mentors, and/or is in big brother program. It would be great for the world. --John Paterson
Roy Pickering is a writer who lives in New Jersey. Roy wrote a book called Patches of Grey. It is a coming-of-age novel, which is set in the projects of New York City. Most, if not all, of the people who live in the projects occupy a zone known as below-poverty-level. They are on welfare, live in subsidized housing, own nothing, have nothing and hope for nothing. Their daily lives revolve around drugs, violence and survival. Patches of Grey is the story of Tony Johnson, who is a high school senior. Tony is bright and ambitious, and Tony wants out. Tony recognizes that there is a great big world out there. He can not imagine what it is like - not really - but he knows it is there. He has his sights set on a college scholarship as his magic carpet to a new life. Then he meets a girl. She is white. Tony is black. Which means Tony's status - the amount of melanin in his skin - becomes a focal point of tension. And racial tension exists because people, who differ in skin-color, exist. Right away, the reader groans. Not another version of West Side Story steeped in the quandary of race relations and gangs and loss of innocence and heartache and teenage angst and blah, blah, blah. Yawn. Been there, done that. Actually, Roy Pickering pulls it off without sliding down the slippery slope into the miasma of the same old same old. He pulls it off because he is one heck of a writer. His metaphors are wonderful, and far from cliche. And he moves from scene to scene smoothly and avoids making the reader feel like he is being dragged along against his will. Pickering accomplishes this feat through restraint, unobtrusiveness, and delicacy of allusion. Which is a pretentious-literary- --Colin of FiveBouroughBooks.blogspot.com
Roy Pickering is a writer who lives in New Jersey. Roy wrote a book called Patches of Grey. It is a coming-of-age novel, which is set in the projects of New York City. Most, if not all, of the people who live in the projects occupy a zone known as below-poverty-level. They are on welfare, live in subsidized housing, own nothing, have nothing and hope for nothing. Their daily lives revolve around drugs, violence and survival. Patches of Grey is the story of Tony Johnson, who is a high school senior. Tony is bright and ambitious, and Tony wants out. Tony recognizes that there is a great big world out there. He can not imagine what it is like - not really - but he knows it is there. He has his sights set on a college scholarship as his magic carpet to a new life. Then he meets a girl. She is white. Tony is black. Which means Tony's status - the amount of melanin in his skin - becomes a focal point of tension. And racial tension exists because people, who differ in skin-color, exist. Right away, the reader groans. Not another version of West Side Story steeped in the quandary of race relations and gangs and loss of innocence and heartache and teenage angst and blah, blah, blah. Yawn. Been there, done that. Actually, Roy Pickering pulls it off without sliding down the slippery slope into the miasma of the same old same old. He pulls it off because he is one heck of a writer. His metaphors are wonderful, and far from cliche. And he moves from scene to scene smoothly and avoids making the reader feel like he is being dragged along against his will. Pickering accomplishes this feat through restraint, unobtrusiveness, and delicacy of allusion. Which is a pretentious-literary-reviewer way of saying that the guy can really write. Patches of Grey deftly immerses the reader in a world that, according to some, is black and white. Good and bad. Rich and poor. The haves and the have nots. Law-breakers and law-abiders. But in the end, the world isn t that simple. Really, the world is made up of lots of grey patches those areas where human beings compromise. Human beings compromise because they don t know what else to do. And when compromise enters the picture, a sense of tarnish oozes across the panorama. In Patches of Grey, many of the characters are tarnished. Tony s father has black skin, but he s a grey person. His bitterness and hatred of everything and everybody, especially of himself, make him grey. Janet, who is Tony s white girlfriend, suffocates in cloudy thinking, which results in grey actions. She tries to please everyone and doesn t please anyone, not even herself. In the end, Tony steps out of the grey patches and walks into the light. Which means the conclusion of the story is far from cliché. In fact, it s unpredictable. And this alone recommends the book because in the end, Patches of Grey is about the cost of loss, the cost of being human, the human cost of life not turning out the way it should. All that being said, the reviewer would make a suggestion to Roy Pickering, who has written an admirable novel in Patches of Grey. Roy should ramble on in his next book. Choose a meandering story of Roberto Bolano-like aspect, and let his tremendous talent seize control of him, rather than him trying to control his talent. For as Nicole Kidman told Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder another coming-of-age-story control is an illusion. And if/when that artistic surrender happens to quote Led Zeppelin ramble on. Let the words flow. And because Roy Pickering s talent is astonishing and ignores every precedent, he doesn t need to be bound by the constraints of a traditional novel. With his literary gift, he can jump out of that box and nurture his advantages. He can produce an epic novel as vast and as powerful as the tundra of Siberia. --Colin of FiveBouroughBooks.blogspot.com
Tony Johnson dreams of attending university while living with an unemployed father, a submissive mother, a gangbanging brother, and a younger sister dealing with teen promiscuity and its consequences. Tony s bright future grows dim as all the people in his life begin falling apart making Tony choose between his family or his future. Oh, I almost forgot, the Johnsons are black and they live in the Bronx. The whole premise sound incredibly trite. It is incredibly trite, but the writing of Roy Pickering makes Patches of Grey an extremely worthwhile and compelling read. Pickering s characters are so deep and fleshed out that they don t fall into horrible clichés. We are lead to believe that Lionel, Tony s father, is a stereotypical underachieving urban father with a drinking problem. But quickly Pickering delves into Lionel s past and things aren t so easy. Lionel is haunted by his past and the feeling that he has always been inadequate for the ones he loves. Instead of explaining this to his family he beats them down with verbal and physical abuse in hopes of lowering their expectations in a white man s world. The plot moves with incredible swiftness. Though we may know where it s all going on the outset, Pickering s love for his characters makes us empathize with all of their plights. By the second chapter we are engulfed in a world of gang violence and broken hearts; it appears sappy but it isn t. Patches of Grey reminds me of The Outsiders. Pickering mirrors S.E. Hinton; each author has a deep understanding of the culture they are representing. I want to call Patches of Grey a young adult novel, but I don t want to diminish its power and quality. I only label it so because its themes are important for teens to read and analyze. Pickering doesn t pander to his readers; he presents all the information through his character s commentary of situations. --Colin of FiveBouroughBooks.blogspot.com
