Team Seven

Wildly popular films from the crime dramas Menace II Society and New Jack City to the comedies Friday and Barbershop have portrayed the realities of black inner-city life with honesty, empathy, and strong plotting. So why are there so few parallel examples to be found in contemporary American fiction? Into that embarrassing vacuum steps Marcus Burke with this literarily accomplished, autobiographically tinged coming-of-age/family drama with an undeniably authentic feel for place and language, and character. Set in the town of Milton south of Boston, Team Seven follows young Andre Battel from age eight through his teenage years as he grows away from his Jamaican family, discovers genuine prowess on the basketball court, and eventually falls into a routine of dealing drugs for the local street gang, Team Seven. This drug connection will have potentially dire and violent consequences for Andre and his crew when he falls behind on his payments, leading to an action-packed climax. The story is told primarily through Andre's voice, but we also see things through the voices and points of view of his mother Ruby, a hard-working medical secretary, his older sister Nina, his mostly not-there-/usually-drunk-and-high father Eddie, a halfhearted reggae musician, and Reggie and Smoke, the kingpins of competing drug crews. What emerges is a rich portrait of a black family, a black community, and one young boy/man poised between youthful innocence and ambiguous experience.