Street Time
4.5Sixteen-year-old Jake Metzger spends his nights hanging out on a Brooklyn Street corner carousing with small time thugs. He gambles that his new façade will gain him respect but instead leads him down a path of violence and drug addiction. Seventeen-year-old Carol Hamlin lives in a small town in upstate New York protected from the dangers and vices of the big city. Carol’s impulsiveness and desire to leave her alcoholic parents behind take her to the brink of suicide.
What People Say
had lost their allure. Jake needed stronger stuff to get through the day.” In this book, the audience meets Jake Metzger, a young man whose “growing predilection for opiates had made him taciturn and irritable.” His home life leaves much to be desired, and he constantly plays tug-of-war between his desire for the streets and his mother’s pleas. Meanwhile, young Carol, who is impressionable and underage, sneaks into bars with her friend Evelyn. Eventually, Jake finds himself in a communal bungalow community, where freedom reigns at the expense of many modern conveniences.
Meanwhile, Jake’s path crosses with Carol and her friends’ path, and Jake quickly recognizes that “hanging out with a dangerous crowd was a toss of the dice. Some teens play the odds and end up dead.” However, his efforts to separate from a home life and family that bind him to what he desires least backfire, and eventually Jake must decide whether the street life or home is best for him. By the novel’s end, it seems that the decision Jake was least likely to make might actually be the one that saves him.
This book takes its audience through the nitty-gritty lives of adolescents who live with alcoholic parents, addiction, strict expectations, and the determination to break free from the things they think inhibit their lives.
Jake’s character undergoes a profound, transformative shift that offers
hope to those facing similar circumstances with their own children or
grandchildren, or perhaps even themselves. The narrative also does not shy away from depicting the violent, crime-ridden environments in which wayward teens typically find themselves. Like The Catcher in the Rye, this novel examines the adolescent psyche and the harsh realities of life.