Kicking the Sky Lib/E

by Anthony De Sa, Tomas Marsh (Reading)

In 1977 a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jacques, is brutally raped and murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, twelve-year-old Antonio Rebelo and his rapscallion friends explore their Portuguese neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys. The boys develop a curious relationship with a charismatic, modern-day Fagin who is master over an amoral world of hustlers, thieves, and drug dealers. As the media unravels the truth behind the shoeshine-boy murder, Antonio starts to see his family--and his neighborhood--as never before. He becomes aware of the dashed hopes of immigrants, of the influence of faith and the role of church, and of the frightening reality that no one is really taking care of him. So intent are his parents and his neighbors on keeping the old traditions alive that they act as if they still live in a small Portuguese village, not in a big city that puts their kids in the kind of danger they would not dare imagine. Antonio learns about bravery and cowardice, life and death, and the heart's capacity for both love and unrelenting hatred in this stunning coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of a true crime that shook the city.

Audio CD

Published March 25, 2014

Reviews

[Teagan Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

the imagery of this book is phenomenal. one is immediately transported to a Portuguese community in Toronto, and De Sa is able to show a well rounded image of why having such a space may be to the benefit or detriment of those in it. The precise portraits of aunts, uncles, and preposterous young boys is artful. A landscape of fading wooden cellar doors and the ambient smell of hot summer tar materializes as soon as one opens the book. However, one may occasionally wish De Sa a less apt painter of imagery when perverted nuns or gutted pigs are introduced. Some authors seem to think stark descriptions of the unsavory human activities is a shortcut to significance and authenticity in a story, and I often find myself resenting fiction of this nature. Often the phonless days of the 1970s where children had until the streets lights turned on to rack their bikes under the trusted eyes of neighbors are romanticized by those who lived in those times. De Sa is able to recall the old neighborhood with clarity, sparing no detail, letting readers decide what they hope can be resurrected so long after the concept of 'neighborhood' seems to have died and what quirks can certainly be left in the past. De Sa vividly recalls real events that shook the Portuguese community in Toronto and lets readers try to make sense of it all... can we truly find consolation in the wake of violence?