Six Out of Seven

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Mowry's powerful third novel returns to the Oakland street scene of Way Past Cool to tell another coming-of-age story set among the black gangs of urban America. This time, however, his tale concerns a boy from the rural South seeking an escape from his oppressive small-town life. Bright, handsome Corbitt Wainwright sees little opportunity in Bridge-end, Miss. When his father is sent to jail for attacking a white man and he himself becomes involved in a deadly dispute over a catfish, Corbitt flees the town in hopes of finding a better life in California. Instead, he becomes caught up in the world of guns, gangs and crack. Save for Lactameon, a gifted, sensitive gang mascot whose obesity sets him apart from the regular homeboys, California might have been another dead end for Corbitt. When they eventually come together, Lactameon finds Corbitt carpentry work setting up a crack house and the two conspire to rescue a starving one-eyed urchin named Ethan from early death on the streets. Mowry has an unerring ear for gritty street talk, a graphic sense of place and an unflinching view of American urban life. Influenced by rap music, gangster movies, street slang and the ghosts and magic of a distant African past, he synthesizes a dazzling new sort of literary adventure fiction. (Oct.)

Library Journal

A young Mississippi boy encounters the harsh realities of the ghetto in this follow-up to last year's notable Way Past Cool ( LJ 4/1/92.) When a gun accident kills a white landowner while Corbitt Wainwright and his friends are fishing on the old man's property, the young boy runs away, fearing he will be implicated. Fleeing to Oakland, California, where he expects better things, he instead finds a community riven by poverty, drugs, and gangs and gets a harrowing look at black urban life. The novel's great strengths are its wonderfully vivid characters, such as Corbitt and the homeboy, Lactameon, who show how dignity and simple humanity can assert themselves in the midst of squalor and violence. Through them, Mowry delivers a powerful message about black/white and black/black relations in America. Recommended for public libraries.-- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.

Donna Seaman

We were knocked out by Mowry's last novel, "Way Past Cool" , a transcendent tale of gang life on the blasted streets of Oakland, and certainly have respect for what he's attempted here, but this novel is a far more diluted and didactic affair. Mowry has set up a parallel between the struggles of urban gang-bangers and the conflicts of a young black man living in a tiny Mississippi community. In each realm, poverty and prejudice choke expectations and dreams. The link between these circumscribed worlds is Corbitt, the best and the brightest of Bridge-end. Tall, very dark, and intense, Corbitt has been forced to recognize the depth and insidiousness of white fear and hatred as his father is sent to jail without having committed a crime and a violent confrontation forces Corbitt to flee to California. Corbitt's Oakland double is Lactameon, a hugely fat and appealing homeboy every bit as decent, honest, independent, and strong as Corbitt. Once these two young heroes join forces, the pace of this far too preachy novel picks up a bit, and catharsis is achieved. This is an interesting near miss. Mowry has burdened his fine characters with too many messages and tried, unsuccessfully, to blend mysticism with polemics. But we do give "Six Out Seven" at least a four out of seven and hope that Mowry will try again.