Jimmy D., Sidewinder, and Me

Hoping to get a more lenient sentence, Dumas Monk writes a series of letters to the judge from jail explaining why he did some of the things he did.

Grade 8 Up A fast-action romp through letters written to his judge to explain how orphan Dumas Monk, 15, wound up in jail on a charge of murder. Dumas begins his rogue's journey when assigned from an orphanage to a couple of brothers who operate a slipshod trucking business. They want a man for hard, dirty, continuous work; they get a smart lad who becomes known for picking winning bingo cards. He runs away with a rascal who trains him to be a pool shark and sharpie. This career ends when Monk is adopted by an old slicker who makes him a professional poker player and fancy man. The narrative is crammed with colorful characters, many explicit details, allusions appropriate to 1948, and fast action through the middle southern states. In style and crammed content, this is similar to Salassi's On the Ropes (Greenwillow, 1981) and should be popular where that title moves. George Gleason, Department of English, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Me" is Dumas Monk, an orphan who is cast from one odd situation to the next in 1948, which lead ultimately to a shootout that he now must explain to a judge in a series of letters, hoping for a lighter sentence. It's quite a story. It begins when he's hauled off to a foster home as an underpaid workhorse; when he shows a talent for pool, he's sort of adopted by Jimmy D., a rangy hustler who knows how to turn skill into a money-making venture; and further educated by Sidewinder, an old card sharp who knew Wyatt Earp and puts Dumas into the card game the night of the shootout. Unless Dumas is as good at lying as he is at pool and cards, this account is that of a true innocent who gets an unbridled initiation into life at the hands of scamps and no-accountswhich is not to say that they don't have their good points. Salassi's story is a well-paced, logical reconstruction of events; while Dumas tries to give his telling some order, readers get a daring, sometimes screwball view of life off the beaten track. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.