Welcome to Oakland

This work is anything but welcoming: instead, it's angry, bitter, challenging, gory, expletive laced, and hopeless. The teenage protagonist of Williamson's much-heralded East Bay Grease, T-Bone Murphy, returns as a young adult, but his mother is still a slimy tramp, his stepfather an explosive jerk, and his friends degenerates who take comfort in cheap booze, drugs, and impulsive violence. There are two levels of blue collar here: people who have steady jobs and just enough money to own run-down cars and houses, and those born into squalor who can't seem to escape it despite (and they have plenty of spite) their efforts and intentions. They are justifiably proud that they earn what little they have. T-Bone absolutely scorns the middle-class exploiters who prosper from blue-collar laborers: "I want you to finish my book and be a little apprehensive [that] maybe we're gunning for you." This statement would have more authority if Williamson himself were not a college professorthough he is Oakland-born. Nevertheless, this powerful slice of greasy, grimy life is highly recommended, especially for those living in urban areas.Jim Dwyer, California State Univ., Chico Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.