Gotta Be Down

by Booker T


Formats

Softcover
$12.95
Softcover
$12.95

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 5/1/2002

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 6x9
Page Count : 336
ISBN : 9780759609945

About the Book

When Sonny and Momma got married, it was supposed to last forever. Then Sonny met Pat and left Momma all alone to raise five children by herself. Everyday is a struggle to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table.

T is Momma’s baby and can do no wrong. He and his friends roam the neighborhood in search of fun and adventure. Stoney, the neighborhood thug, is his hero. Meanwhile the bills are piling up, Momma has to work around the clock, and there’s no one to keep track of the kids.

T and his friends cross paths with Solomon and soon things escalate from fistfights, to knives. One day, Stoney and T stumble across a gun in an old, abandoned garage while trying to find wheels for their go-cart. Before they get a chance to use it, fate intervenes. Momma’s house is condemned and they move. The only house that Momma can afford is located in the heart of the ghetto.

T is separated from his friends and his old neighborhood and now he must adapt to the harsh conditions of the inner city without a father. Alphonso and Tony are his role models, but are they really looking out for him? And can they avoid the mysterious stranger in the long, black Cadillac, the man who calls himself Money?


About the Author

Booker T lives in St. Louis, MO, with his wife and two cats. This book is the culmination of five years of blood, sweat and tears and dozens of face-to-face interviews with the characters whose lives and exploits have been fictionalized within these pages. GOTTA BE DOWN is about the choices some men are forced to make to survive and feed their families. But GOTTA BE DOWN is also a love story and an action-adventure.

The inspiration to write this book was drawn mostly from the writer's own experiences. The theme of child exploitation throughout the book came straight form America's newspapers. In GOTTA BE DOWN a boy named T is chosen by Booker T to be the metaphor for exploited children. T is raised by a woman the book simply refers to as "Momma." She is the single mother prototype. Most of her time is spent working two and sometimes three jobs. T's role models are neighborhood thugs. In ghettoes across the country most households are headed by unmarried or divorced women. Just like the author, most, if not all, of T's friends are from homes without fathers. The narrative is filtered through the eyes of the kids who live in the pages of this book. Everything's real. The author felt it, and hopefully the reader will feel it too. In essence, GOTTA BE DOWN is about some of the consequences of not having a father figure.