To Reach a Dream

by Nathan C. Heard

A new Cadillac every year, fancy rags, flashy hot women, pockets stuffed with big bucks, and the BIG FUN of talking trash, drinking mash, snorting cocaine-that's what achieving manhood meant on the mean, sordid streets that Bart Enos roamed. In order to thrive, a man had to have a goal in life-a goal that could only be paved with money. And there was little Bart wouln't do to obtain it. With the overwhelming scent of sex lifting from his skin, all he needed was a shot at one rich dame to be set for life. Put a little sugar in her bowl. Black man making it in a world og gambles, whores, junkies and pimps. "Deep and powerful, vivid and compelling." -Minneapolis Tribune "A raw, brutal portrayal

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Born in 1946, Nathan Heard grew up in New Jersey. As a young man he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to Trenton State Penitentiary, where he wrote his first and most famous novel, Howard Street (1968).
After coming out of prison, Heard became a teacher. He has taught creative writing at Fresno State College and black literature at Rutgers University. He still lives in Newark and continues to write fiction, but the intensity of his debut remains unmatched.

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gritty realism and not an inconsiderable amount of sex. This book follows a young black man, Batholomew Enos, in Newark in the 60s. He goes to jail at 17 for armed robbery, where he is brutally raped. When he gets out he decides the only thing he can do to get out of rat race is get a rich woman to be his sugar mama. He goes to work for one and his plan is starting to work when he falls in love with her daughter instead. He gets the daughter to agree to kill the mother so they can be together and have the money, but the daughter goes crazy after they succeed at killing her mother, and pushes Bart down the stairs. He winds up paralysed, which is not a good thing for a playa. End of novel. Trashy, but so cool.