Getting Right with God: 2a Novel

Lucas Martin, the unlikely hero of this wonderful first novel, is, by his own admission, a bit slow; he's also a self-professed coward with little vision or ambition. An African American high school student, Lucas is coming of age in a Long Island ghetto rife with prostitution, violence and drug abuse, patrolled by police interested only in making sure that crime stays within its borders. Yet this is not a tragedy, but rather a wildly comic story of growing up black in modern society. Lucas's best friend is a hustler and drug dealer he describes as a ``role model for the condemned''; his detested stepmother is showing a newfound interest in him that may not be entirely maternal; and his girlfriend Deana is pushing him towards social and personal awareness, of which he's decidedly wary. He also has an active, albeit unconventional, spiritual life: he treasures and reads an old Bible that belonged to his mother, and with the help of the gas in aerosol cans, he can talk to God--and Satan. Both of these supernatural beings find their influence on earth declining; with Lucas as their only company, they ultimately make friends after some spirited exchanges reflecting their age-old animosity. In a raw, raunchy and highly imaginative style reminiscent of Ishmael Reed (but without his often blatant sexism), Newman addresses the myth and meaning of African American life today. (Feb.)