Tyler Johnson Was Here (2018)

Tyler Johnson Was Here (2018)

YA/adult fiction
Marvin, narrator of Jay Coles' Tyler Johnson Was Here, and Tyler
are teen twins. For much of their lives they've been close even as
their talents and interests have gone in different directions.
Marvin becomes alarmed when he sees Tyler hanging around with a
known drug dealer and his crew. One day he sees him doing what looks
like a drug deal. Tyler has his reasons.
"...Look, Marvin, it's not easy with Dad not around [He's
serving a long prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit], and Mama
can't support us on her own. You see her struggling. Can't pay the
bills, let alone send you to college. Johntae's going to help with
that. So that's all this is."
Going against his better instincts, Marvin and best friends, Ivy
and G-mo, go to one of Johntae's big parties as Tyler's guests.
Suddenly there's gunfire. The crowd stampedes to get out. Marvin is
able to locate Ivy and G-mo, but Tyler doesn't get home that night...
...or the next or the next...
...Marvin frantically searches for his twin as the police do
very little to help the family. Then a video goes online--a video
that shows an unarmed Tyler shot in cold blood by a white police
officer.
What can Marvin do to show the world that Tyler was not a thug,
but a basically decent kid who meant the world to those around him?
Coles pulls no punches. He takes readers into a world where
police are all over, roughing up black kids with impunity, and viewing
the world through white supremacist colored lenses. Even a snack run
can end up tragically. Besides the one caught on video, there are two
other police brutality episodes. In one the twins see a White cop
beating an already subdued Black boy.
"The cop keeps bashing the poor kid into the sidewalk, smashing
his face onto the surface, screaming hate into the back of his head,
screaming that he forgot his place in the world, screaming that his
wide nose had it coming..."
I think none of us would want ourselves or our loved ones to be
slandered after death to help law enforcement literally get away with
murder. At the arraignment of the officer who murdered Tyler, Marvin
thinks."
"But to them, all they see is his hoodie and baggy pants. All
that cop saw was a thug looking for trouble."
Marvin's struggle to save first his brother and then how the
world remembers him makes this poignant coming of age narrative a must
read for its target demographic and well beyond.
On a purrrsonal note, the high note of this past week was the arrival
of my big Christmas gift from my kids: my upcoming semester's
textbook. The fruitcake ingredients I got from my friend, Emily, were
also exciting. I am so psyched to bake my first fruitcake, probably
Monday. The low point was having a rather smug tech guy talk me
through solving a problem with my laptop. I have made an additional
resolution to learn as much computer as possible, not only to advance
education and career wise, but to minimize contact to those techies
who think they're God's gift to the world.
Right now we're into that meteorological crappiness known as mixed
precipitation: a rain, snow mix with the worst features of both.
Eugene's birthday is tomorrow. I plan to make him a nice breakfast.
For supper we'll have ribs, mashed potatoes, and real (not canned)
carrots topped off with homemade molasses cake. I know he'll like and
make good use of the gift I have for him: his 2021 combo hunting-
fishing license. (Jules)
That yucky stuff coming down again!!! (Tobago)
Great big shout outs go out to my kids, Emily, Eugene, and my super
chum Mazie who just celebrated her birthday yesterday!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



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