His mother’s name is Precious, but nine-year-old Abdul’s name changes with the circumstances in Sapphire’s grueling novel, the orphaned boy’s identity defined by his caretakers. Caught up in the grinding bureaucracy of New York’s child welfare system, Abdul travels the rootless terrain from his mother’s deathbed to foster care, the Catholic St. Ailanthus School for Boys, an elderly great-grandmother and finally, the streets, where crafty predators await children who fall through the cracks, a surreal and Dickensian landscape, albeit modern-day. A stream-of-consciousness narrative illustrates the confusion of an innocent thrust into an indifferent society, where adults not only fail to protect but prey on their charges and other young victims become seasoned predators in kind. Large for his age, Abdul is often exposed to situations that would defeat an older boy, his identity and sense of worth dictated by a system that rejects him out of hand.
Physically and emotionally battered in each new placement, Abdul’s strong spirit is molded by caretakers and peers alike, a bizarre world where curiosity blooms but base instinct dominates daily survival. This is a boy under assault, caught in a broken system, a department so rigidly institutionalized that compassion and kindness are nearly nonexistent. Abdul’s mother, Precious, fought the darkness of a violent life, claiming a small piece of happiness for herself and her son, her love the one constant in a bleak existence. Abdul endures, learns to accommodate, his mind filled with fragments of memory, family history, a blend of reality and fantasy from Mississippi to the flowering of Harlem, from predatory priests to dance and a downtown loft where other lost children gather as like recognizes like, broken knows broken.
Once Abdul has heard the siren call of music, dance draws the heartache from his bones. But all is permeated with poverty, the inherent violence of despair. Inspired by the transcendence of dance, Abdul has few tools for judging trustworthiness, the always-suspect motives of others. Through the context of Sapphire’s narrative, the torment of this young man’s mind is made palpable. Debased and profoundly disadvantaged psychologically, Abdul is a creature of pure instinct in an agony of confusion, too often powerless, an object of curiosity- but with his mother’s drive to escape. The Kid is a damning portrayal of a society that warehouses children with greedy degenerates and ignorant bureaucrats, a haunting, painful novel, Sapphire a fearless guide in a place where identity is a precious, hard-won commodity. Luan Gaines/2011.
