JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
“G.O.D.”
by Saleem Little
5 of 5 Stars
“G.O.D.” by Saleem Little stretched the boundaries of Urban Fiction. Through the microcosm of inner-city New York, Little shined the spotlight on the ulterior motives of the “War on Drugs”.
G.O.D. is the story of two men, from two different backgrounds bonded by one universal plight – poverty and the need to escape it. Wally’s father is murdered early in his life leaving his mother to care for him alone.
Unable to shake the addiction she has developed, Wally’s mother is consumed in the consumption of drugs leaving Wally to fend for himself on the streets of Buffalo, NY. Hamid’s father is executed by a firing squad because of a political scandal leaving Hamid as the sole bread-winner for his family in Helmand, Afghanistan.
Though, separated by an entire ocean, Wally and Hamid’s lives are strangely similar and eventually these lives clash in a bloody war sparked by the murder of Hamid’s closest friend Luqman. Bigger than Hamid and Wally’s story however, is the theme of God that permeates the novel and his presence, or lack thereof, in the lives of the characters. G.O.D. is a story of the atrocities that prevail when divine law is missing in the hearts and minds of men.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the inspiration to write G.O.D.?