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    The Kid
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    The Kid
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    The Kid
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Kid

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Fifteen years after the publication of Push, one year after the Academy Award-winning film adaptation, Sapphire gives voice to Precious's son, Abdul.

    In The Kid bestselling author Sapphire tells the electrifying story of Abdul Jones, the son of Push's unforgettable heroine, Precious.

    A story of body and spirit, rooted in the hungers of flesh and of the soul, The Kid brings us deep into the interior life of Abdul Jones. We meet him at age nine, on the day of his mother's funeral. Left alone to navigate a world in which love and hate sometimes hideously masquerade, forced to confront unspeakable violence, his history, and the dark corners of his own heart, Abdul claws his way toward adulthood and toward an identity he can stand behind.

    In a generational story that moves with the speed of thought from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday; from a troubled Catholic orphanage to downtown artist's lofts, The Kid tells of a twenty- first-century young man's fight to find a way toward the future. A testament to the ferocity of the human spirit and the deep nourishing power of love and of art, The Kid chronicles a young man about to take flight. In the intimate, terrifying, and deeply alive story of Abdul's journey, we are witness to an artist's birth by fire.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2011
    ISBN9781101526330
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Kid

    3/5

    51 ratings6 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I really wanted to love this book. As a teenager I read Push and it was life changing. I remember being moved by the raw emotion conveyed through Sapphire's writing style. When I opened this book I anticipated much of the same.Abdul Jones is the some of Precious, the neglected and abused young woman from Push. We meet Abdul, age 9, as he is getting ready to attend his mother's funeral and together both boy and reader fall down a well of confusion and despair. Abdul's life in foster care is abusive and deceitful and we follow as he goes from the young prey to the strong predator. The story itself is sad and thought-provoking but the way it is written makes it too hard to stay engaged. Sapphire uses stream of consciousness to write Abdul's story and at some points it is moving, at others it is hard to read and just too much. The ending is the biggest disappointment of the book. We leave Abdul in a state of complete confusion. He is confused about the twists and turns his life has taken and the reader is confused as to why we kept reading the book. I did not expect an happy ending but I didn't expect it to fall flat at the end either.
    • 5/5
      This novel is sprawling and messy but also entrancing. Where Push was a compact gut punch, this is a slow burning bleed in the back of the skull. The one thing above all others that Precious gives her son Abdul is language, hoping to make his life better than her own. it seems though that all language gives Abdul is broader dimension to his experience, thought, and actions. His experience is often violent and shocking, as are his thoughts and actions. The grimness of his experience does battle with his own joy and chance for redemption. He is at once a creator and a destroyer, a victim and a perpetrator, a hero and a villain, but his character complicates and distorts these categories. Sapphire has crafted a devastatingly complex character reflecting the fullness of human potential and human frailty. Sapphire's background as an experimental poet is more evident here than it is in Push, with a stream consciousness narrative style that is both poetic and disjointed, percussive and beautiful. Fans of Push might not be open to many aspects of this book, especially with regard to form and characterization. Sapphire rightly invokes the poetry of Ai in one of the novel's epigraphs, as there are tonal echoes of it here, along with echoes of Samuel Delany's most transgressive works. This novel is a phenomenal work of contemporary American literature that gives voice to a challenging character.
    • 1/5
      We met Abdul Jones on the morning of his mother’s funeral. He is nine years old and finds himself completely alone, facing a long hard road ahead. Unlike Precious, who grew through her experience, Abdul (J.J.) slides ever deeper into the system and into his own anger and despair. He becomes a character I did not like very much. Then the book descended into a book I did not like very much.

      Written in the same gritty and coarse manner as Push, I felt that this book used the language and the situations for shock value rather than being an integral part of the story telling. I finished the book hoping there would be some satisfactory resolution for me as a reader. I would have accepted good or bad, but there was nothing I could grasp on to. Sadly disappointing as a sequel.
    • 2/5
      Ummmm. I really hate to give negative reviews especially if I enjoyed other works by the author. This novel however, I really had to drive myself to finish. Most of the novel had me completely lost and read like a tweaker sitting down with someone trying to tell a story. The ONLY character that I liked was Toosie. I was sympathetic towards the story and felt deeply towards the issues and what the author was trying to say but was so confused that it made me bitter. I WANTED to understand but just couldn't because of all the disjointed rambling. I really liked Push but this....WTF???
    • 2/5
      Disturbing story about Precious' son Abdul. Told in 4 parts, the book begins when Precious has died of AIDS and Abdul is sent to foster care. Throughout the book, we learn about Abdul's difficult journey from adolescence into adulthood and what happens to one child who hasn't felt loved in a very long time.Sapphire's stream-of-consciousness writing style doesn't always work. Abdul is a very complicated character and many times his dreams and thoughts are confused with reality. Sometimes I found the graphic subject matter not necessary and a bit gratuitous. "The Kid" is a tough read but not as strong or as well-written as "Push."
    • 3/5
      I was so excited for this book. I hate to say I was disappointed, but I was, slightly. I was so excited because I absolutely LOVED Push. (I still do!) It is one of my favorite books. I was even more excited when I heard Sapphire was coming to Minneapolis. I made the mistake of not finishing the book before I went to hear her speak. She was AMAZING, but it kind of ruined the rest of the book for me. I had read about 3/4 of the book and after I heard her speak I didn't really have any desire to finish reading it. She gave away the ending and that was that for me. J.J. was a strange character to me. I don't think I really liked him. I wasn't really rooting for him. He wasn't a nice guy -- he was messed up and proceeded to mess up other people. I was also so sad that Precious was killed off in the first page! I loved her so much from Push and I wanted her to succeed. Yes, this book had it's redeeming qualities, but I did not nearly enjoy it as much as Push.