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 BLIND
by K. Rodriguez (Site/Buy)
Fiction, 2006. 247 pages. Let’s see, favorite songs about skinheads?
Probably Darkbuster’s “Skinhead” and Hard Skin’s “Millwall
Mark.” Favorite skinhead movies? American
History X and Made in
Britain
. Favorite books about skinheads? Has to be Martin King’s A Boy’s Story and this one. (Admittedly I’ve never read any
others with this exact main subject- the football hooligan novels I love
so much by the likes of John King, Kevin Sampson and bits and bobs from
Irvine Welsh aren’t technically about skins, just violent nutters in
general- but I really do like these two books). Favorite skinhead
cartoons, Broadway musicals and TV sitcoms? I’ll have to get back to you
on that later.
Blind is the
first-person tale of Bryant (his last name), a young Bay Area skin who
heretofore prided himself on his lifestyle choice and the fact that he and
his crew are vehemently anti-racist. As the book progresses, Bryant is
faced with some serious issues. Events unfold that lead him to question
his friendships, his relationship with his girlfriend, his attitude toward
minorities and, ultimately, the idea of revenge. Oh yeah, and through it
all he’s involved in a fuck load of violent altercations. He’s kind of
a dick for the first part of the story, but as these life-altering
situations occur, he actually becomes a better person and is even sort of
likeable by the time Blind reaches its redemptive conclusion.
It’s obvious that Rodriguez knows a lot about skinhead culture,
writes good, solid dialogue (which is a lot harder than it may seem), can
develop a decent plot and has a real talent for writing blood-pumping,
glue-you-to-the-page fight scenes. And, right or wrong, when I found out
that “K.” wasn’t actually a 20-something dude as I originally
assumed, but rather a woman of 19 or 20 when she wrote this book, I
couldn’t help but be more impressed than I already was. Let me be clear
that this story stands on its own no matter what its author’s gender and
age is. But the fact that someone so young can write so convincingly about
a character of the opposite sex- and such a brutal fucker to boot- amazes
me. This book is one person’s DIY labor of love, and I’m glad she put
this out the way she did. There are a number of grammatical errors
throughout, but that ended up not really bothering me all that much. I
actually started to attribute these to Bryant himself, thinking that if he
were really writing this as his memoir, these types of errors would be in
there. I look forward to reading whatever Rodriguez comes up with next.
–Ben Hunter
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