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| Harvard Law Bulletin Washingtonian Harvard Magazine |
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| Not since Richard Wright’s Native Son has the education of a young man been rendered as daringly and defiantly, and emotionally galvanizing as Murad Kalam’s Night Journey. Night Journey is the story of Eddie Bloodpath, beautiful, oversized awkward child of the streets, perpetual innocent and reluctant puglilist, raised by a rouge’s gallery of artful hustlers, strung-out mystics, pubescent cracklords, drunken burnouts, and ghost-faced prostitutes out of the ghettos of South Phoenix’s Third Ward into the absurd underworld of Las Vegas prizefighting. The sunwashed desert landscape of the American Southwest, its fusion of black, Latino and Native American cultures, of lowriders, and hip hop is the backdrop for this novel of self-creation when a senseless murder and its aftermath sends Eddie reeling on a spiritual and intellectual journey towards his truest self. Set in this world of endless violence is a rousing love story, of Eddie’s youthful obssession with a hauntingly beautiful prostitute named Tessa with whom he shares an unspeakable secret. Stranded in Phoenix and forever separated from her infant child, Tessa becomes Eddie’s erstwhile mother, confidant, and forbidden fantasy. Waiting in the wings is Marchalina, the high school crush, a bookish, clumsy, upperclass North Phoenix girl who could save Eddie from his worst instincts. Filled with elements of magical realism and southern gothic, Night Journey is a tale of brothers. Hefty, and handsome, quiet and strong like his long-lost father, Eddie is the good son who stays out of trouble. Frail and stuttering, Turtle is the very opposite, a natural born hustler and grammar school dropout, who in a moment of clarity delivers Eddie to the boxing gym to save him from the abyss of the streets. Night Journey is a first novel equally remarkable for its raw power and wise empathy, borne up by Murad Kalam’s unshakable belief in the ultimate grace of humanity. |
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