Fiction
Discourse
Irwin L. Hinds
Trafford Publishing
2007
ISBN: 978-1-4251-2024-5
Soft cover
280 pages
In Irwin L. Hinds' novel, Discourse, Dr. Derek Nelson Nadir discovers an insurgence of drug related violence and the love of one of his former students while on an extended Christmas vacation to his home country, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). During his stay, Derek, known affectionately as "Denny," learns that the state of young men in his country is the same as that of males of African descent in his current home of New York.
While walking on the beach one morning, Denny has a chance meeting with one of his former high school students, Claris, as she gets in her daily jog. There is an instant chemistry between the two. Denny is divorced, but Claris is in a bad marriage with an abusive, dangerous man. Although the couple finds ways to meet-up that will not spark suspicion, Claris' husband, Michael, also known as Prince, does learn of his wife's secret love. As the leader of the marijuana growing "Gardeners", Prince puts Denny on his hit-list. Over the course of two weeks, Prince's young followers (all eighteen and under) rack-up four dead bodies, one of which should have been Denny.
Throughout the story, Denny and his friends, including his childhood cohort, Oslo, and several former students, have an on-going discussion about the problems that young men of African descent face in T&T and the United States. As a college professor, Denny has focused on helping these young men and he talks at length with Oslo, an elementary school teacher, about what each can do to further the cause.
Hinds speaks specifically to the responsibility of all of the African Diaspora in dealing with the problems the youth struggle with: "...we talk about doing things that we know would be beneficial to us in the long term, but we never act on them."
Discourse is a multi-layered, intriguing tale that delves into the areas of teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, drug trafficking, and the loss of a generation of young men.
Melissa Levine
For Independent Professional Book Reviewers
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