The Kid

by Sapphire Narrated by Sapphire

Overview

Fifteen years after the publication of Push, one year after the Academy Award-winning film adaptation, Sapphire gives voice to Precious's son, Abdul.

In The Kid bestselling author Sapphire tells the electrifying story of Abdul Jones, the son of Push's unforgettable heroine, Precious.

A story of body and spirit, rooted in the hungers of flesh and of the soul, The Kid brings us deep into the interior life of Abdul Jones. We meet him at age nine, on the day of his mother's funeral. Left alone to navigate a world in which love and hate sometimes hideously masquerade, forced to confront unspeakable violence, his history, and the dark corners of his own heart, Abdul claws his way toward adulthood and toward an identity he can stand behind.

In a generational story that moves with the speed of thought from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday; from a troubled Catholic orphanage to downtown artist's lofts, The Kid tells of a twenty- first-century young man's fight to find a way toward the future. A testament to the ferocity of the human spirit and the deep nourishing power of love and of art, The Kid chronicles a young man about to take flight. In the intimate, terrifying, and deeply alive story of Abdul's journey, we are witness to an artist's birth by fire.

Editorial Reviews

Danielle Evans

At its best, The Kid captures the grueling heartbreak of trying to love anything when the world doesn't love you enough, of trying to summon desire or affection in the absence of any healthy context for either one.
—The New York Times

DeNeen Brown

Sapphire, a fearless writer with complete command of her story, spares the reader nothing—no comfort, no room to turn away. The only possible respite can be found in the poetry of her prose…What The Kid reveals about victims and perpetrators is not for the faint of heart.
—The Washington Post

From the Publisher

[P]owerful… affecting and harrowing.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times 

“A devastating voice, demanding and raw . . . an accomplished work of art.”—The Los Angeles Times

“The breathtaking velocity and visceral power of her prose soars off the page…The Kid gives us a story and a narrative voice which, like his mother’s before him, should definitely be heard.”—The Guardian (UK)

“[Sapphire] remains fearlessly committed to telling uncomfortable truths… Like Push, The Kid is deeply moving and unflinching.”—Essence 

“The Kid’s unflinching authenticity makes it tough yet ultimately rewarding to read.”—People

"Steely-eyed, full-frontal daring."—Philadelphia Inquirer 

Kirkus Reviews

The larger audience attracted by the award-winning adaptation of the author's debut novel (Push, 1996, adapted into the filmPrecious) will recognize this sequel as "Son of Precious."

A poet and teacher, Sapphire created a literary sensation with the publication ofPush.Yet that novel had even greater impact more than a decade later as the source material for Precious,the success of which might well have spawned this longer, more ambitious follow-up. Readers might remember the birth of a son in that novel, the second baby for the precocious teenager who was repeatedly raped by her father. The boy mainly existed in the margins ofPush,andthis is his story, one of adolescent turbulence and shifting identities, from a narrator who has difficulty distinguishing his dream life from the shifting realities of his existence. And so will readers. Those hoping for more of Precious will be disappointed to learn that the novel opens with mention of her funeral, as the narrator quickly finds himself shunted from one of his mother's friends to a foster home to a Catholic orphanage, from which he is delivered to his great-grandmother (who delivers an impassioned soliloquy on her migration from Mississippi to New York) after the discovery of a bureaucratic foul-up. Various names accompany his abrupt changes of address, with "Abdul," "Crazy Horse" and "J.J." among the labels attached to a boy who at 13 could pass for an adult.His sexuality is equally ambiguous; though he doesn't think of himself as gay, he finds himself prey for older men and develops an appetite for smaller boys. He's also smart, articulate and a gifted dancer, as he moves from the patronage of a dance teacher (who takes sexual or at least emotional advantage) to an experimental company where both his sexuality and hold on reality are challenged. The author plainly embraces an aesthetic she ascribes to a dance piece—"It's controlled where it needs to be and wild and free where it can be"—though the novel might benefit from a little more of the former at the expense of the latter.

Powerfuland disturbing, though not always coherent.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172223617
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/05/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

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