Young Junius: Seth Harwood: 9781935562283: Amazon.com: Books

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After his older brother is gunned down, six-foot-three-inch, 14-year-old Junius sets his heart on vengeance and makes for the Rindge Towers, a three-building slum uneasily shared by two rival pushers. What starts as a narrative limited to the point-of-view of the remorseless teen widens—and widens and widens—until it encompasses a huge cast of characters, including kids, cops, and a legion of small-time thugs. Harwood’s cutaway view of a single bloody day in a housing project is an impressive feat, undercut only by the sameness of some of the warriors, who come fast and furious with names like Big Pickup, Black Jesus, and Seven Heaven. Despite these monikers, there’s nothing cartoonish about the story, which powers forward with a blunt and violent vulgarity: “He pushed the door open and headed out to see what the fuck.” There is a mystery here—who really pulled the trigger on Junius’ bro?—but the point is clearly the bad-versus-worse decisions brought on by bloodlust. Given the characters’ brutality, Harwood’s empathy runs deeply indeed. --Daniel Kraus

Review

"Searing... a vicious black comedy of murderous errors. Harwood pulls no punches."

--Publishers Weekly --Publishers Weekly

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Customer Reviews

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“ If you want an action packed fast moving read this is for you. ” Gary Johnson | 7 reviewers made a similar statement

“ He created a incredibly realistic experience, with multidimensional characters and multiple points of view. ” Deborah Szajngarten | 6 reviewers made a similar statement

“ This book read like an epic fantasy in the style of Tolkien, Brooks, Moorcock with a young hero out to avenge his older brother in an enemy landscape. ” Timm Gillick | 4 reviewers made a similar statement

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-Crafted Characters November 24, 2010

By Mark Coggins

Format:Hardcover

Harwood lifts the lid off a public housing project in Cambridge, Boston, exploring the pressure cooker environment that forces young black men into a life of drugs and violence in a 36-hours-in-the-life story of young Junius Posey. It's an impressive plate-spinning act of multiple voices and points of view, all leading to a dramatic crescendo where everything and everyone in the story come together. From Junius and his friend Elf to Junius' stouthearted mother and drunkard father to bent cops to gang leaders to crack fiends, he jams the story full of well-crafted characters and makes us believe in and empathize with them as individuals. Strong recommendation.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive. Most impressive. October 27, 2010

By Thomas J. Meyer

Harwood's portrayal of a day in the life of a young man searching for his brother's killer in the bleak and hopeless Rindge Towers of 1980s-era Cambridge, Mass. is soaked through with detail, color, kick-you-in-the-gut honesty, and straight up action. He gives each participant in this story the breath of life and makes certain that no one seems squeaky clean or irredeemably malicious. They are complicated and real, and the situation that young Junius Ponds finds himself in has facets he never fully realizes. Despite this depth, the action moves quickly and Harwood skillfully paints each scene for the mind's eye as if it were playing out on the big screen.

Do yourself a favor. Pick up this book and give it a chance. It's a great introduction into Seth Harwood's work, a collection that includes other outstanding offerings in the Crime genre in the Jack Palms series (in which an older Junius Ponds makes another appearance). Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Cambridge Survival July 24, 2011

By NormCrawford

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This novel moves ahead with the immediacy of a fully-automatic Tec-9. It explodes into the world of drugs, territorial gang wars, poverty and violence. You can't read part of this book, the fate of 14-year old Junius Posey is precarious from the first page, and he never seems likely to escape. He survives despite making choices that make sense only to a boy who seeks revenge for the murder of his older brother. He does have street-schooled awareness and determination, but would still die except for an opponent, who for reasons of his own, protects Junius.

Set in 1987 in three public housing high rise buildings called the towers, the motivations, relationships and loyalties of the drug dealers that run the towers are detailed. When you read Young Junius, stories in the news about the deaths of young men fueled by drug use are no less sad, but you are in a world where violence is inevitable.