Bridges: A South-Central Odyssey Hardcover

With their two voices alternating throughout the telling, this is the true story of a unique relationship that manages to transcend today’s racial and cultural divide. One is a successful Caucasian author of numerous non-fiction books who shares a home with lifelong friends in the Hollywood Hills. The other is an African American youth who grew up robbing people on the streets of downtown Los Angeles to survive, while stealing books from the library to become a savant in ancient mythology.

Fifty years apart in age, they fall accidentally (or by fate) into each other’s lives at a time of transition for both. It’s a tale of two initiations: the young genius with a father in jail and a mother on drugs, suddenly recognized for his potential by a society he has scorned, and the unexpected mentor who becomes a welcomed denizen of a neighborhood he’s never entered before.

Recounting experiences past and present from their differing points of view, Russ and Romeo move far beyond the stereotypes of well-intentioned white liberal and angry black youth. Amid a backdrop of contemporary issues impacting the inner city, their initiations are fraught with risk and revelation, including the doubts, fears and often the seeming impossibility of finding common ground.

Arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, facing a foster care system that abused him and now seeks to claim his newborn child, Romeo learns to trust Russ’s coming to his aid. Russ puts his career and perhaps his freedom on the line over what he perceives as injustice. Their mutual leap into the unknown ultimately comes to encompass a spiritual dimension that includes shamanic divination and psychedelic experience. What began with Romeo’s remarkable recitation from Homer’s Odyssey turns into a modern-day enactment of its themes. Ultimately, this is a mysterious and timeless story about Destiny and Love.