Righteous by Joe Ide: A review

I read Joe Ide's first book in his series, IQ, a couple of years ago and liked it well enough that I thought I would read further, but, as often happens, I was distracted by other books and actually sort of forgot about it. Then I happened upon this one recently. This is the second in the series and I decided to give it a read.

The events in this book take place ten years after the hit-and-run death of Isaiah Quintabe's older brother, Marcus, the experience that has set Isaiah on his life's path. His righteous anger over the incident has not abated; in fact, it has only gotten stronger over the years, fueled by the fact that the killer was never found and brought to justice. He is still searching for that killer.

But then Isaiah is contacted by Sarita, who was Marcus' girlfriend at the time of his death and someone for whom Isaiah has nourished a secret crush. She seeks his help for her sister, Janine, a DJ and gambler addict living in Las Vegas with her loser boyfriend, Benny. Janine and Benny are in trouble with Chinese gangsters and loan sharks. They are in way over their heads and in danger and Sarita wants to get her sister out of Las Vegas and away from those who threaten her. Isaiah takes the case and convinces his friend Dodson to help him out. Dodson somewhat reluctantly heads to Las Vegas with Isaiah (IQ), leaving behind his very pregnant girlfriend, Cherise.

The main plot deals with IQ's efforts to help Janine and Benny and impress Sarita but there are a dizzying number of side plots, including IQ's discovery that his brother's death was no accident; it was actually murder. At a junkyard, he discovered the car that ran him down - 10 years after the event! (To say that that discovery stretched the limits of my imagination and my willingness to suspend belief is an understatement.)

But that hardly even scratches the surface. There was the drama of Cherise's pregnancy; there were multiple gang disputes that degenerated into brawls and all sorts of additional drama; there was a subplot involving human trafficking. There were too many characters to keep track of and each of the secondary characters was given an extensive back story to explain who he or she was and their role in the story. I felt the book would have benefited from a tighter focus on the main story and character and that other characters could have been adequately introduced through dialogue without the author having to give us a mini-biography of each of them. As it is, IQ comes across as a kind of one-dimensional character, motivated by anger and loneliness but without humor and with little leavening of any kind.

Still, there are the makings of a fascinating character here and one feels sympathy for this lonely outsider. We want to see him succeed. I think the next book in the series will be definitive in deciding whether that character becomes a full-fledged human being and whether Joe Ide really has a successful series in the works.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

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