An Uprising of Angels

Set in April 1992, An Uprising of Angels follows an ensemble cast of teens and adults, whites and blacks, good citizens and gangstas already fighting for turf and survival in their integrated L.A. hood when the riot breaks out and all hell breaks loose. A frank and often darkly comedic depiction of race relations and life in the hood, told from alternating points of view and the first person dialects of five main characters, Uprising transports the reader to 1992 L.A. as the city awaits in tense anticipation the Rodney King trial verdict. Black, smart, straight and savvy, Anwar Branch (an 18 year old senior in high school) falls in love with Sonja Macetti, the white, beautiful and somewhat disoriented daughter of Mike Macetti, a Shane-like man with a past (former undercover cop gone bad) whose current mission is to protect his hood from the recent invasion of the Crips into a crackhouse down the block. Gunther Branch, Anwar's father-having left his family in disgrace, moved to another hood, and become a Blood-also desires above anything else to come home again and destroy the Crips who are threatening his family. With no father and a crackhead mother, 18 year old Ishmael Smith (a friend of Anwar and Sonja) has recently joined the Crips and lives in the crackhouse with Rayhab, the baddest gangsta of them all, who has set up shop in this hood precisely because Macetti lives there and he's finally tracked him down after a seven year odyssey around the country. When the riot breaks out, the characters become involved in some of its most infamous and disturbing events. With thematic allusions to Moby Dick, authentic dialects and dialogue, and crisp pacing, Uprising is at once literary, a good read, and cinematic.