Eating the Forbidden Fruit is a gritty fiction novel loosely based on true events in author Roland Sato Page life. The newcomer author delivers a personal journey into his rise and demise as a St. Louis City Police Officer. He takes the readers on a roller coaster ride of good ole family memories to the nightmarish reality of being a police officer indicted on federal drug charges. During his trial he wrote memoirs as a testimonial of redemption. Roland case stems from conflict of his childhood affiliation and his oath to uphold the law. What is certain one can't run from sin for karma is much faster. Falling from grace can be like hell on earth. The novel will be available March 2020.

WHO DOES YOUR

CHILD RELATE TO

IN THIS BOOK?

 

In EYES ON THE PRYZE these young adults make some life altering decisions. They create worlds within their worlds to survive what daily life dishes them.

• Phoenix makes rash decisions on an assumption
• Vina medicates her past through drugs
• Kye tries to heal from the loss of a friend through the street game
• Rajii needs to be respected by the one he respected the most and when he believes he is not rewarded the way he thinks he should be he turns to his street mentor's enemy to hurt and prove he deserved the rewards. All this stems from the lack of having things quite not meant for him at the time. (GREED with no patience)
• Lynx's loyalty to his friend and to the game made him overlook the things he was truly blessed with
• Blizz wants to KING life so bad he is willing to kill for it. His envy makes his demise what it is. He wants to rule even if he isn't King.
• Jamaira is young and impressionable. She let one guys infatuation for swag and a little attention pull her into a life that was not meant for her. She is naïve because the lack of schooling and sheltering.
• Cahree aka Carmen is dying to prove to her father she's worthy to run the company business. it's not what she wants but she will do whatever it takes to get her father's attention even if she has to kill for it betray her only friend for it or loose on love for it! she is desperate to be daddy's cartel princess.

 

WHICH CHARACTER DOES YOUR CHILD RELATE TO? THERE ARE SME SCENEROS YOU MAY WANT TO TALK THROUGH WITH THEM. CHOP THE BOOK UP IN CHAPTERS SO IT IS NOT OVERWHELMING. MAYBE HAVE HER AND HER BEST FRIEN READ IT AND YOU CAN ALL SIT DOWN AND TALK ABOUT IT.

 

Urban Fiction…A Parents Tool!

Moms and Dads or anyone who has an opinion about youths reading Urban Fiction...

 

Urban fiction is not a threat to our children. It is not written to promote Promiscuity, drug use nor is it promoting the street life. Urban fiction is written sometimes for pure entertainment but we know as adults that a lesson can be learned and taught in the strangest settings. These are not urban myths but truths told through the pens of writer’s experiences or experiences told to them. If parents or guardians picked up an Urban Fiction book and read its content they may not approve of the style of writing due to the profanity or vulgarity but is it the words or the message?

 

If you as a parent feel that the content is too advanced for your child...think again...these are the very things talked about amongst their peers and sometimes what they see and experience on a day to day basis.

 

Try and get them to talk about what they have read or read it before them or with them. Have a discussion about the events that happened within the book.

 

Try to get them to put themselves in the shoes of the characters or character of choice.

 

Ask why they chose that person and see what they would do differently. Or ask them what they felt about the person’s situation.

 

The BIGGEST and most ENCOURAGED:

Ask who they relate to the most.

 

There is so much going on around them. Life is moving faster than ever. Some fall between the cracks in the street's sidewalks. Some remain stagnant because they are numb.

Urban Fiction can serve as a learning tool for the both of you. You can get to know your child through these books, how they think, their survival tactics for the streets, what they are going through themselves, emotionally; maybe with their friends, a friends friend or even a boyfriend or girlfriend. It may also teach you how to talk about things that may have been taboo in your household. The plus is it will keep them reading! (That is what is most important!)

 

You never know you might pass it on to a girlfriend of yours to help her with her teen. If it works out, like I think it should, it might just get your sons into reading...breaking the myth that men don't read.....This is no longer something to think about... This is something to do!

 

 

 

 

“Fame requires every kind of excess” “I mean true fame, not the sombre renown of weary statesmen or chinless kings. I mean long journeys across gray space. I mean danger, the very edge of the void, the circumstance of one man imparting an erotic terror to the dreams of the republic…………. ( is it clear I was a hero of Rock ‘n’ Roll)So starts Don Delillo’s 3rd novel, Great Jones Street. The hero, Bucky Wunderlick, has left the group high & dry, by dropping out of a national tour at the height of their fame & success. His reasoning is to seek out an alternate existence, outside of his public persona, by seeking refuge in some crummy bedsit on Great Jones Street. The problem with this is everyone knows he’s there, his manager (the building is owned by his management company), members of a cult, fellow band members etc & they all want to or already do own a piece of him. Some are after some experimental super drug & some for some tapes of music he has made.In trying to write this piece, I’ve checked out various resources & they make comparisons between the hero & Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison & even Kurt Cobain (amazing as the book was out in the early 70’s), discussing the relationship between self & public persona. In the book there is no division, the public perception has as much credibility as the individual, Bucky & us, as readers, constantly learn of his exploits all whilst constantly aware he hasn’t left Great Jones Street, making rumour & publicity at least as real as his private self.Also mentioned a lot is the connection between the underground movement & rock. There's a cult called the Happy valley farm commune, who have set up home in a lower eastside tenement & seem to connect themselves with Bucky's withdrawal from society (or his perception of it). Personally I think Delillo points us elsewhere to what he perceives as the real underground, through the character of Watney(named after the English beer comp?) an old retired English rocker who says on page 232 “The presidents & prime ministers are the ones who make the underground deals & speak the true underground idiom. The corporations. The military. The banks.This is the underground network. This is where it happens. Power flows under the surface, far beneath the level you & I live on. This is where the laws are broken, way down under, far beneath the speed freaks & cutters of smack. Your not insulated or unaccountable the way a corporate force is.Your audience is not the relevant audience.It doesn’t make anything. It doesn’t sell to others.Your life consumes itself”If this book has a message, its something like, rock & its rebel underground image has no real status, no power, it is merely a way of selling a particular commodity. That the real status,those that really stick their fingers up to the man, are the man. This was probably true then & it definitely resonates with what makes the news today.This book also left me with a dilemma, a question. Can you still like a book that has no redeeming characters, that has no likable quality in its ideals, individuals or even the images it portrays…..In the end it’s saved by the sheer power & beauty of the writing, it is strong, erotic & has a insular nature suited to its main character, in fact it reminded me of a book I read years ago, that was also in a confined setting & had a poetic nature & that was Lawrence Durrell's The black book

This book was lent to me by my Gr. 11 English teacher and I read it back in 2004 and loved it; but I don't think I appreciated it to the extent I want to. Therefore, it's back on my to-read list to remind me to read it again soon.