Brother

The boys in this story dig around for tenderness, belonging, and respect in a hard city. It's difficult not to compare this against Zadie Smith's White Teeth or Stephan Kelman's Pigeon English. But Brother falls short in creating that immersive world-within-a-world. The first-person narration often sounds too grown-up and removed from the character's point of view. Smart turns of phrase get repeated a little too often.