Honky

As recalled inHonky, Dalton Conleys childhood has all of the classic elements of growing up in America. But the fact that he was one of the few white boys in a mostly black and Puerto Rican neighborhood on Manhattans Lower East Side makes Daltons childhood unique. At the age of three, he couldnt understand why the infant daughter of the black separatists next door couldnt be his sister, so he kidnapped her. By the time he was a teenager, he realized that not even a parents devotion could protect his best friend from a stray bullet. Years after the privilege of being white and middle class allowed Conley to leave the projects, his entertaining memoir allows us to see how race and class impact us all. Perfectly pitched and daringly original,Honkyis that rare book that entertains even as it informs.