Right by My Side

- Blurb -

Move over, Holden Caulfield, and meet Marshall Field Finney, in the 30th anniversary edition of Right by My Side, by a celebrated chronicler of Black middle class life in the American Midwest A Penguin Classic With wit and realism, David Haynes presents a different kind of Holden Caulfield in fifteen-year-old Marshall Field Finney, an ordinary, sullen teenager who discovers storytelling as a way to ease his adolescent anger and family tensions. Living with his parents in "Washington Park,' ' a housing development outside St. Louis, Missouri in the 1980s, his high-strung mother walks out on him and his father, a flawed yet strong man who manages the local landfill. Marshall' s two best friends, one Black and one white, are his only allies, as they navigate school and family life together. Through these relationships, Haynes poses Marshall' s universal questions about his place in his community and what' s next in his life. Ultimately, Marshall' s story proves that people take care of each other, families take care of others, and a boy finds his own resilience to become a young man. "[Haynes] belongs to the old realist tradition that believes that everyday life, if truly rendered, is more than exciting enough. "-Los Angeles Times Book Review "Haynes offers engaging characters who tackle fundamental issues such as love, family and benevolence," Publishers Weekly