Young Adult fiction - Joaquin "Keeny" Duran is on parole and trying hard to go straight, but he lives in a vast urban ghetto called Dogtown with an unhappy mother, an Anglo stepfather, a younger sister and 2 younger brothers. One night events send him running - from the gangs, drugs, the Youth Authority, the whole mess. Keeny decides to try to prove, at least to himself, that if you get in trouble once you'll always have to prove your innocence from then on. He succeeds better than planned, but the book does end on a positive note.
