Synopses & Reviews
Fast paced, heartbreaking, alternately funny and furious, alive with new language in every sentence, The Digital Hood announces a new voice in American writing.
Author P. J. Rondinone grew up in the South Bronx and spent his youth as a gang member. He writes, "What does it mean to see your friends die around you from violence, as I have? Death at an early age is a constant reality in the lives and characters of The Digital Hood". These stories portray urban young people who find coded ways to speak -- digitally over the Net, graffiti-tagging on walls, overpasses, and billboards, or rapping. The language in this book is theirs, and in some way each story touches on the question of who controls speech, and what it means to be silenced.
The gang leader who narrates the horrifically funny "Something for Sucio"; the girl with a crush on a graffiti-writer in "The Nobody"; the victim of police torture in "To Break a Nigga's Neck"; the risen-and-fallen rapper in "Gangsta Bond"; the bewildered old Italian couple in the riot-torn L.A. of "You People"; the middle-class black man who can't escape his past in "My Protector", and the gleeful, imaginative hacker of "The Digital Hood" -- their voices and stories are unforgettable.
Review
"I read
The Digital Hood right away and straight through. It is the real thing. There isn't a false moment. No question about it, Rondinone has a great ear for the language. I can't wait to read his next book."
Clarence Major, author of Dirty Bird Blue"There is a remarkable power in The Digital Hood . . . Reading this book is an exceptional experience."Hubert Selby, Jr. author of Last Exit to Brooklyn
"P.J.'s work hits like a brick. The reader is not cushioned from blows."Abraham Rodriguez, author of Spidertown and The Buddha Book
"These stories grab you by the throat and won't let go until they've screamed their peace."Jill Nelson, author of Volunteer Slavery
Synopsis
A vibrant and provocative collection of stories chronicling the lives of inner-city youth, from the South Bronx to L.A., from black to white to hispanic.
About the Author
P. J. Rondinone grew up in the South Bronx, and has published stories in numerous journals. He is an English professor and director of journalism at a CUNY community college and lives in New York.