Little White Lies by Cole Riley

Published by Strebor Books on November 26, 2013

Despite its surprising publication in the "Zane Presents" series, Little White Lies is not a tawdry romance novel. It is a story about young black men: their burdens and aspirations; their varying responses to a highly sexualized culture; the hostility they encounter when confronted by police officers who view them as hoodlums because of their skin color; the unfocused rage that permeates inner city communities. Racial struggles, defined by generational differences, furnish a theme that dominates the story. Class differences and their impact on criminal prosecutions furnish another theme, as does the intersection of race and politics. As is often true in good fiction, those large themes are illuminated in a smaller, personal story. To some extent, Little White Lies reads like a modern version of, or a tribute to, Native Son (an impression that is reinforced when Richard Wright is quoted toward the novel's end), but it's missing Wright's finesse.

Melvin is a high school basketball player in Brooklyn with athletic scholarship potential. His demanding father is a self-defined hustler. His mother is wise and well-meaning but frustrated. Melvin's brother Danny suffers from depression, an anxiety disorder, and drug abuse. Melvin's male friends tend to get shot, sometimes by thugs, sometimes by the police. The females in his class intimidate him with their aggressive sexuality and his girlfriend is a manipulative, self-centered tease. Thinking with the wrong head, Melvin makes a poor decision, then follows it with another, potentially life-destroying decision by putting himself in the wrong place with the wrong people. The novel's second half deals with Melvin's unfair treatment as he's chewed up by the criminal justice system and by a politician who wants to exploit Melvin to gain points with white voters.

Little White Lies is told from Melvin's perspective in a natural voice that is free from literary pretension. The story's depiction of inner-city policing is disturbingly realistic although trial scenes are not. Some of the characters, white and black, are a bit over-the-top in their stereotyped thinking and pronouncements, but so are some real people. Still, this isn't a nuanced story. The novel works best when Melvin is playing the role of Raskolnikov, wrestling with guilt, trying to understand his actions. The events that occur in the novel's second half aren't entirely believable and that lack of credibility mars the story, but I enjoyed it notwithstanding its substitution of simplistic melodrama for convincing plot development. While the story seems true at its core, too many scenes of Melvin's trial and its aftermath are exaggerated beyond belief. The character of Melvin makes Little White Lies worth reading, but Native Son this isn't, despite the strength of its main character.

Depictions of sexual conduct (and misconduct) are quite graphic, not lurid or pornographic and certainly true to the story, but timid readers should stand warned of the novel's R-rating.

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