47th Street Black

by Bayo Ojikutu

Book Overview

The prize-winning debut from an incendiary new voice in contemporary fiction, 47th Street Black is the story of JC and Mookie, whose rise in the gangster-driven ghettos of Chicago is as swift as it is brutal. Told from both perspectives, the story follows their rise to power with Mookie as the de facto leader and JC as the enforcer, roles that land JC in jail for fifteen years, while Mookie takes over all of the South Side. By the time JC is paroled,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609808478
• ISBN13: 9780609808474
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Broadway Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A Very Good Book

This is a very well written and intense story of two boys who grew up in Chicago in the early 60's in rough neighborhoods and the journey they had from childhood to adulthood. One of my fav's.

For a first novel, I was blown away

by the imagery and the pain conveyed. You feel the hopelessness of the folks on 47th Street and, even though he probably shouldn't be the one I was rooting for, I was on JC's side from the beginning. Rough around the edges and stubborn, JC is like many people I know. I was sorry I read it so quick!

When's the movie coming out?

I was blown away by Ojikutu's gritty, urban novel. This book is definitely not for the timid and prudish. He tells a fascinating tale of inner-city gangster life set on the South side of Chicago. Ojikutu does such a fine job developing thoughtful, three- dimensional characters that seem to jump right off the page. Being a Chicagoan, I feel compelled to drive down to 47th Street in search of Ojikutu's mystical character, Black. I can not wait until this book gets picked up by a major movie studio; this has Hollywood blockbuster hit written all over it! I just hope that Robert DeNiro and Mekhi Pfifer will be available!

I know J.C and Mookie

While reading this book I kept thinking I know J.C. and Mookie the names are diffrent but the they are the same guys I know in this day and time from around the way. While reading this book I grew up with J.C. and Mookie, meaning that I felt it when they were kids, and then they became teenagers, and then men. I was with J.C. while he did his bid in prison, I was Mora hanging with Mookie all those years. The scene in Prison was rough and real I cried for J.C. There were some serious comments about God and Jesus,(I didn't think anybody else thought like that)I also was reminded of Sheakspere's Othello, because of all the manipulation going. I hated how we were/are made to do each other in, and the cycle continues. I didn't give the brother five stars only because some parts were kind of hard to follow however, this is the brother's first effort and it was worthy.

"Black" Tells it Like It Is

47th street is alive in this novel. Ojikutu captures the language and the culture and presents it in rich prose.As a Chicago South-Sider, I found the story of Mookie and J.C. to be very realistic. As a reader, I felt the anxiety, the fear, the ambition, the disappointment, and even the thrill that these two experience as they come of age in the steet game and eventually become two of its major players. This is much more than a story of urban hustlers, it is the story of men stuggling to first find their manhood and eventually striving to become "the man". The story is intelligently told, vivid, and engrossing.