text clean, binding tight, edge wear, pages yellowed, spine & covers creased, paperback, Signet, 1970, 256 pages Additional Details ------------------------------ Product description: A major literary rediscovery, this is a searing first novel written inside Trenton State Penitentiary in 1968. It's based on the authentic first-hand Newark street experiences of an accomplished African-American writer,— unique street-insight into the psychology, motivations and lingo of the shadowy figures who inhabit the ghetto night-—pimps, 'hos, junkies, dope dealers, winos, corrupt cops, and young hoodlums. The writing is inspired by "black experience" legends as Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim, and informed by the disciplined and inspired prose of Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford or Chester Himes.