Black Water Rising
I just finished Black Water Rising by Attica Locke. First time novelist but a writer. Locke has written screenplays for all the major movie houses including a mini-series she is working on now for HBO. Black Water Rising, a pretty good book but not a great book, has all the makings of a big blockbuster movie.
The plot is a tad hard to follow at the onset but comes together in the end. Locke probably doesn't edit screenplays but writes them. Her timing on this book is perfect. The content is something that hits all the high notes that are relevant today.
African-Americans who were radicals in the 60's and 70's embroiled in the Civil Rights Movement grow up and sweep all that under the covers. One actually becomes a mayor. Another, the main character, Jay, is barely eking out a living lawyer. He carries his demons around with him. There is a present day union strike against racism and the working man, there is a murder that is trying to be covered up (lets murder anyone who witnessed it) and those two themes tie up quite nicely in the end. Big business is corrupt, they have Government in their palm and oil is tied to everything. The everyman might win in the end and open up the can of worms that everyone knows about but doesn't really acknowledge. Like the Bush administration as everything appears to be boiling up after the fact although we all knew what the American public wasn't being told, didn't we? The black water bubbling on the outer edges of Houston is in the book. Black water is oil, Texas style.
The book becomes more of a page turner about 1/3 of the way in. I liked it and loved the brilliance of the timing of the book. Will be huge in paperback. Bound to be at lots of airport bookstores. Glad I stuck with it. Waiting for the movie to see who the casting director chooses.