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[texchan]

"As with many of my young male clients from the south side of the city, prison was an anticipated part of life for McGinley. He grew up knowing he was going. The only questions were when and for how long and whether he would live long enough to make it there. In my many jailhouse meetings with him over the years, I had learned that McGinley carried a personal philosophy inspired by the life and death and rap music of Tupac Shakur, the thug poet whose rhymes carried the hope and hopelessness of the desolate streets McGinley called home. Tupac correctly prophesied his own violent death. South L.A. teemed with young men who carried the exact same vision.

McGinley was one of them. He would recite to me long riffs from Tupac's CDs. He would translate the meanings of the ghetto lyrics for me. It was an education I valued because McGinley was only one of many clients with a shared belief in a final destiny that was "Thug Mansion," the place between heaven and earth where all gangsters ended up. To McGinley, prison was only a rite of passage on a road to that place, and he was ready to make the journey.

"I'll lay up, get stronger and smarter, then I'll be back," he said to me."

~The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly

So, I'm kind of going through a whole "legal thriller" phase at the moment. I've had this one sitting around the house for ages. It's a book my mom loved (so much so that she's read it several times over the years), and she wanted me to read it. I'm not normally big into these types of books ... but, what can I say? I've been OD'ing on Mark Gimenez recently, and I was sad to see the last book of his end. I thought this might keep the buzz going for a bit longer. Plus, I saw the movie and loved it, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

Comments

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

That's a good book! Have you read 'The Poet' by the same author? I think it's one of the greatest crime novels ever. Micheal Connelly is one of the best authors in that genre, but his books are sometimes hit or miss, some are brilliant but a few were kinda boring. Those 2 were my favorite by him.

I guess I should get around to seeing the movie version of that one....

[tex-chan.livejournal.com]

I haven't read The Poet. I'll have to check that one out!! So far, I like Lincoln Lawyer a lot. I was a bit worried I wouldn't, since I liked the movie. Normally, if I see a movie version from a book first, I don't like the book quite as much as if I had done things the other (more normal) way around. D'oh! >.O