Minnesota voices project

2 primary works

Right by My Side

by David Haynes

Published 1 April 1993

In this coming-of-age story, Marshall, a wisecracking African-American teenager in suburban Saint Louis, deals with his mother's desertion of the family and his friend's abusive father.

Heathens

by David Haynes

Published 1 April 1996

Marcus has the blues. Because his wife, LaDonna, is doing twenty-five days in the Shakopee Women's Detention Center for selling a house she didn't own--and putting a hex on the judge. LaDonna's marketing her own brand of facial creme called Madame LaDonna's Herbal Beauty Care Products. And Marcus' mother, who's got Mormons upstairs and heathens all around, sees her chance to liberate Marcus from that infernal woman at last.

Welcome to the world of the Gabriel family, three generations of curious, headstrong, and frighteningly independent-minded people living in a country called the Midwest. From Marcus' war with his unruly sixth-grade class to his voluptuous neighbor's pursuit of Jesus and the perfect sex life, the Gabriels and their friends are all going a little bit crazy. For with scheming, loving, eternally optimistic LaDonna doing time, this family is falling apart. And now the question is--how far can they slide in twenty-five little days? From one of the freshest new voices in American literature, "Heathens" is a novel with heart and soul to spare.