Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2009 He treated you like a gangbanger. I thought that’s what you wanted, says DeShawn early on in the book. This conflation of fear and respect is central to DeShawn’s life in a housing project ruled by the Douglass Disciples, a gang in constant battle with the nearby Gentry Gangstas. DeShawn is 12 when the book begins; he is 28 when it ends, and the time shift between each section dramatically illustrates how quickly things can go wrong—a caring mother becomes a prostitute, a promising student becomes a drug pusher, and so on. Despite the lure of money and power, the sensitive DeShawn has no intention of joining the Disciples, instead focusing on his schoolwork while watching his best friend, Terrell, work his way up the hierarchy. But in Strasser’s tough, authentic, and only occasionally preachy work, tragedy is always just a gunshot away, and temptation all too often upsets the best-laid plans. Strasser loads the book with startling true statistics, and the final pages are both hopeful and heartbreaking. - Copyright 2009 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 03/01/2009 It’s a story often told: a well-meaning boy with the intelligence that could lead him to a brighter future gets sucked into a world of gang violence. Every night and day, DeShawn hears the sounds of gunfire and sees the signs of drug trafficking from his apartment, and though his grandmother pleads with him to stay inside and out of trouble, he is naturally curious about what goes on. Unlike his best friend, however, he is not anxious to join the gang that governs his side of the projects, even though the leader, Maurice, assures him that he will be “blessed” into the gang rather than jumped in (beaten and burned by cigarettes) because Maurice appreciates and needs his intelligence and insight. With money tight and his family, including his sister’s newborn twins, going hungry, he finally agrees, a decision that ultimately leads to multiple murders, a reorganization of the gang structure, and life in prison for DeShawn. This is a compelling read about characters whose motivations are complex and whose choices are limited mostly by their loyalties to their communities and families, broken as they are. Though Strasser is crudely purposive in his peritextual materials (interstitial notes and factoids as well as a foreword and author’s note), the interest of the story and the careful development of character, intrigue, and consequence fortunately overshadow the ham-fisted packaging. If Strasser’s goal is to create understanding for the tragedy of life in the projects, he more than succeeds through the story of a good kid gone bad for good motives; sadly, he also drives home, perhaps inadvertently, the message that there may be no way to fix these kids’ lives. KC - Copyright 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.