Rough, raw, and riveting, Saleem Little’s first novel is a gritty portrayal of survival in an urban setting, where working the GAME (or dealing drugs) becomes the only way to escape stifling, racist-driven poverty. To most Americans, the GAME exists in a fantasy world, a violent world either glamorized by hip hop music or demonized by data and government statistics. Saleem Little illuminates it as a realm inhabited by real families and real children, a world where harsh choices determine outcomes for life or death. Marquise Jackson inherits the responsibility of caring for his mother and brother when his father is killed in a hail of bullets. As Mar navigates the world of drug dealers, street sharks, and other players in the GAME, he discovers that his intelligence and caution make him an excellent competitor. He is so successful that he lifts his mother, his brother, and his beautiful fiance, Lexi, out of street-level poverty into a world of success that results in education, charity, and social responsibility. Although the rewards are great, this tournament of wits is a dangerous sport, and the stakes are high. Saleem Little creates a surprise ending that twists and turns as Marquise and Lexi discover the fatal price for playing the GAME. (Get In, Get Out) is a high-speed train that carries the reader on a non-stop journey filled with sex, drugs, and violence. In that sense, it is dynamic and action-packed. The story, however, becomes more compelling when the reader discovers Marquise Jackson’s deep desire to live a NORMAL life: a life where his children can grow up safely, where his little brother can go to college, where his mother can open her own shop and earn a living, where his family can gather for a Thanksgiving dinner like any other family in America. Saleem Little creates a world where the language of the street reveals an undeniable aspect of American culture, a reality that many Americans try to ignore. The irrefutable fact that a tremendous proportion of young African American men are incarcerated proves Little’s point that playing the GAME is sometimes the only option to escape street-level poverty. -Suza Lambert (Suza Lambert Bowser Productions, LLC)
