You have to get past the set-up of this one, which never really comes off, to instead appreciate the voice that's telling the story. Copeland is a bit of a loner awkward smart-ass kid whose growing up as a black boy in the Oakland ghetto is being told from the not-too-distant point of his eighteen year old self. It's a meandering tale as he serially butts up against his environment - almost accidentally burning down his neighborhood, going to reform school built on a garbage dump in the bay, hustling sneakers, being drafted into an elite prep school for their PR purposes, discovering a talent for track. There's nothing particular to make the reader go "wow" or anything, but it works if you go with the flow, and it occasionally sparkles:

That's right. Miguel had been hustling shoes. And not just any old shoes. You know who and what I'm talkin' about. Everybody and they momma seems to love this Negro. Hell, you probably love him your damn self. Michael Jeffrey Jordan's old unpolitical ass. If it was a championship in cigar smoking and not giving a shit, that dude woulda won all the chips.

It's a story that could be told in the current day but instead has been advanced forward a decade or so and things made just a little worse than they are now, so it can be called a future dystopia I guess, but that's not really what it is and that whole thing could be dropped and I'd probably say the book made better for it. The efforts to add footnotes to the story from the white nationalist point of view of someone with the unsubtle username of andrewjacksonslaststand010621 (but then hey these guys aren't known for their subtlety are they!) particularly didn't work for me.

Just keep your eye on Copeland's bildungsroman, relax, don't sweat finding out the details of the big thing that is suggested at the novel's very start and will finally be revealed almost at the end of the story, and you'll be in good hands. ( )

This book is set in Oakland, California in the near future, where protagonist, Cope Cane deals with the aftermath of the pandemic, institutional racism, gentrification and intergenerational trauma. Also, athletic shoes. So its a serious book, and probably not for everyone.

But I liked it. For one thing, it's set in Oakland, which is an American city that has largely been ignored in literature, and which is also my birthplace. For another, it let me imagine how the next generation will cope with the events of the early 2020's. And most importantly, it introduces us to the intrepid Cope, who deals with serious issues as they happen, but maintains a certain equanimity and sense of purpose, and gives hope for the next generation. ( )

I love Copeland and his voice! Copeland is taping his "confessions" which isn't really revealed until the end - otherwise, it's a coming-of-age story of whatever formed Copeland. Quite ambly, but at one point there is a certain thing that is mentioned that explains why it is ambly and really, the entire point really is that it's hard to see someone clearly without hearing about what formed a life from the beginning. Otherwise, without that history, a fugitive on the run might not get a jury of their peers. Living slightly in a future Oakland, where the repercussions of the "flu of 2020" still haunts, and police have "learned" from 2020. I loved all the mentions of important classics of literature, my personal favorite -- Paul Beatty's 'The Sellout'. Future classic right there! This is one of those books that you can't tell if it's satire or not because America is so bizarre at this point that it hits too close to home. Overall, I loved spending time with Copeland, but I would have also liked to see more of some of the secondary characters. But it would have needed a little something more to make it a perfect book like 'The Sellout' is in my opinion. But I'm glad this exists and that I read it. And DAMN it's a skill that Norris was able to publish this in June 2021. Speedy writing according to what is mentioned in this book! I'd add this to the shelf next to T. Geronimo Johnson's 'Welcome to Braggsville', Maurice Carlos Ruffin's 'We Cast A Shadow', and Tommy Orange's 'There There'.
*Book #122/304 I have read of the shortlisted Morning News Tournament of Books competitors ( )

This is one of those novels that I found excellent when viewed close up but disappointing when viewed from a distance. I enjoyed the wordplay, dialogue, and characters, but rather than existing on their own, they feel like they are there to serve a purpose, to impart a specific message from the author. Of course, all novels do this to one degree or another, but I like the mechanics to be more invisible. ( )

I found this book on Hoopla while searching for audiobooks from the ToB longlist. I had not heard of it, but Oakland? An author who teaches at SJSU? Yes please! And this book has a lot of Bay Area/California references (Piedmont, Antioch, Beast Mode, BART, Treasure Island, J. Kidd, Arcadia relays, Mt Sac relays, and I am so old that I was there live in person for the Gary Payton cake incident). Gentrification with names like "Redwood Shores". There is a lot of humor, sarcasm, and satire here. I am left wondering what I missed--I think the whole shoe hustling thing is much deeper than I understand. I have never understood the whole basketball shoe thing, but to each his own.

This book is also the first I have read that brings the pandemic, masks, and 2020 into fiction. (SPoiler: it's not over.)

I did enjoy this book. I also think that maybe audio was not the best choice. With the press releases and breaks within chapters, it was a little confusing. Despite the different narrators I often did not know what/where the book had gone. I also really needed the name spellings for clues (I was hours in before I realized that Jack and Jacqueline were the same person--it might have been obvious on the page).

I think Norris did a believable job with his near-future dystopia. The public/private police dichotomy with their yes/no body cams, the tearing down affordable housing to build condos, the media (owned by Stephen Miller)/police merger and press releases, the even more extreme policing of PoC by private police forces, walled Piedmont (aka Piedmontane), Treasure Island being home to a polluted continuation school used by the court system. It's all so believable--since some of this is already happening. Is more already happening that I don't even know about?

I have a feeling this book will not work well in translation--it is so American and so Bay Area I'm not even sure it will work well for people not familiar with the Bay Area. Or, maybe all of the references are really just Easter eggs and the story is fine without them? ( )