There’s a good chance you don’t know much about Hood Struggle or its author Kevin Guillard. That seems to be the main point in this country and the story that goes on with a lot of people that go about their daily business and aren’t given the time of day by so many, but it’s also the point of why this needs to be noticed among so many others. While it’s not bound to be called the most compelling story by some it’s also one of those that seems to be honest, straightforward, and told in the kind of voice you might expect when talking to the individual that wrote it since there’s too much human feeling in the story to ignore. Some might claim that there’s no real struggle but just a series of bad choices being made, but the idea of struggling isn’t just about being downtrodden and kept on your knees by life, it’s about struggling against the choices we make and taking the easy path vs. taking the harder and yet more righteous path. If anyone dares tell you that’s not a struggle then they’ve been pampered a little too much.
From one writer to another it’d be easy to tell Kevin that he needs to work on his diction and writing a bit, but the main point still comes through and the feel of the story doesn’t get lost in the grammatical errors that can pop up in every book from time to time. The story itself has a very strong feel of Boyz in the Hood and even Menace II Society at times but without the overall glamorization of street life that so many people want to take note of. Instead it remains dark, gritty, and in some cases rather fatalistic since the main characters don’t often have a lot of great choices laid out before them when it comes to life and how they’re allowed to live it. One could say that Kevin takes a slightly diplomatic approach in bringing to light just what goes on in the lives of several individuals throughout the course of the book and gets about as down and dirty as he wants to without having to make people experience just how messed up things can really get. That might sound a bit odd and even less than convincing but Kevin does tell a story that makes a person wonder if they could possibly survive in the world that the characters experience, especially if they’ve never known the kind of poverty that’s experienced by so many.
Picking up this book and giving it a read isn’t bound to seem like something you want to do if you don’t enjoy stories about the hood, nor does it seem like something you’d want to read if you don’t enjoy a lot of foul language and situations that make you break out in a nervous sweat. But it’s still the kind of story that makes you feel, that makes you think, and that makes you wonder just how some people in this world survive on so little. It also makes you wonder just why others can’t seem to fathom the idea that people will do absolutely anything to survive, and will seek the easy road when it’s the only one that’s really left to them. There are those that can’t really see the hard and virtuous road as the place to be when it comes to the decision of whether they want to starve and feel better about themselves or steal and deal and fill their bellies while decking themselves out with bling to seem more impressive. There are a lot of choices in life, but in some instances that particular one doesn’t seem like the wisest choice to give. Kevin makes it pretty clear that a lot of folks see that kind of choice as no choice at all, and will gladly do whatever it takes to get what they’ve got to get before someone else does.
Throughout the story though he does show how the characters find themselves wanting to do the right thing even if they’ve got to do wrong to get it. There’s a wide median between being bad and just trying to survive, and his characters cross it fairly regularly in their daily bid to just get by. Making this into a movie would be exceedingly easy it seems, but giving it its own feel would only be marginally harder since it would be necessary to pull away from the stereotypes and really let Kevin’s voice ring out. I’ll admit to being a little biased when it comes to fellow authors, I’d love to see a lot of them bring their stories forward and get turned into something great. That’s why I’d gladly tell Kevin to keep his head up and keep pushing forward, and in my own words, just keep writing.
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