Woo’s Grocery except for his sister Victoria. So nobody cry too much when they carry Buck Boy from Mr. He crashed it into a light pole on the Boulevard and bang us up pretty bad and run off. The worst he did was he stole our whole school bus two years ago when we was on it. Steal a purse, steal the chrome off a car, steal a whole car. Drugs was his main line, but he’d steal anything. He always be looking for trouble and he always be strung out on something what they call PCP or whatever that makes you lose your mind. Nobody around here liked Buck Boy too much. I seen that Buck Boy was wearing a brand-new pair of white and purple sneakers. So we sit there a half hour: Me, Dex, Goat, Bunny, Dirt, the cops, Mr. The van take its time to get there, but Buck Boy, he ain’t in no hurry now. The cops ask us questions but we really didn’t see nothing, so the cops call the black van to come get Buck Boy. He don’t look at Buck Boy when he talk.īy this time the whole neighborhood show up, including Buck Boy’s sister Victoria, who be shouting and screaming outside Mr. Finally they get it out and hand it to Mr. The cops have a heck of a time prying that money out of Buck Boy’s hand. His face is pale and he look like somebody punched him in the stomach. They leave us inside because we are witnesses. Two cops come quick, chase everybody out the store, close it down and take the gun from the floor. He drop it like it’s a firecracker and walk around in a little circle, ringing his hands and talking in Chinese or whatever. Whether he’s Chinese or Korean I don’t know, but he let my band rehearse upstairs over his store for free. Woo is a little old man who wear a yellow straw hat. His hand was clutching that money tight, like he never want to let it go. Buck Boy, dead as he was, still got a knife in one hand and fistful of dollar bills in the other. Don’t matter now ’cause he laying on the floor dead as a doornail. Woo shouting downstairs and we run down and see him standing over Buck Boy Robinson.īuck Boy be about seventeen years old, I guess. Woo’s Grocery and Chinese Take-Out one day when the following happened: We hear gunshots.įirst we stop playing and hit the floor because in The Bottom you don’t know who the good guy is. He is a storyteller I would follow anywhere.Įlectric Lit is 12 years old! Help support the next dozen years by helping us raise $12,000 for 12 years, and get exclusive merch! “Buck Boy” by James McBride It’s right that “soul” is in the title of this masterful collection because soul is the essence of every McBride story: there is soul in the rhythm of the narrative, soul in the lives he conjures, and soul in the poignancy of the endings. They are often hard - not to read, they are completely captivating to read - because they show us lives that are complicated, emotions that are raw, and people who defy easy categorization.
#READ SHOW ME WILL MCBRIDE FULL#
His narratives operate against assumptions, stereotypes, and expectations to explore the full panoply of human experience. So much of McBride’s work is about what exists beneath the surface of our public lives, those secrets we hold deep within ourselves and our families. Through Butter’s eyes, the reader comes to understand the complexity of the community’s bonds and the characters’ motivations. But the truth at the heart of “Buck Boy” is nothing like the synopsis. A preacher calls for a protest the media descends on the town a funeral almost doesn’t happen a gravesite is visited.
In “Buck Boy,” a boy called Butter guides us through Uniontown, Pa., after a black teenager is shot by an Asian storekeeper. McBride has a remarkable ability to fully inhabit his far-ranging characters - from an old Jewish toy collector to a lion in the zoo to a child who thinks he’s the son of Abe Lincoln. Above all they are honest, each imbued with a profound humanity expressed through deep compassion, rollicking humor, and an absence of any judgment. His stories are surprising, marked by unforgettable characters, memorable dialogue, and striking descriptions. You never know where James McBride will take you in his writing, though you always know you are in the hands of a superb storyteller.
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