Midnight: A Gangster Love Story

Midnight: A Gangster Love Story
Author(s)	Sister Souljah
Cover artist	John Vairo Jr. (designer) Mike Rich (photography)
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Literary fiction Urban fiction
Publisher	Atria/Simon & Schuster Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster (trade paperback)
Publication date	November 4, 2008
Published in English	November 4, 2008
Media type	Print E-book
Pages	512 pp.
ISBN	ISBN 978-1-4165-4518-7 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4165-5626-8 (e-book) ISBN 978-1-4165-4536-1 (trade paperback)
OCLC Number	212846660
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Classification	PS3569.O7374 M53 2008
Preceded by	The Coldest Winter Ever (1999)
Followed by	Midnight and the Meaning of Love (2011)

Midnight: A Gangster Love Story originally scheduled to be published October 14, 2008, is a novel by Sister Souljah that was published November 4, 2008, by Atria/Simon and Schuster. It is a prequel of The Coldest Winter Ever (1999), the novel that spawned the contemporary street literature movement. It follows a young Black Sudanese Muslim immigrant in Brooklyn with whom Winter Santiaga associated before she was sent to prison.

Characters

• Midnight, the narrator and title character, is a 15-year-old Black Sudanese immigrant. He learns about the struggles that occur in the US. He proceeds to criticize the way that modern African Americans act in contrast to the way he and the men in Sudan behave and, in contrast, they have loose behavior. He also learns to find love and a great sense of protection for the people about whom he loves and cares.

• Umma, Midnight's and Naja's mother, is content with the way women act in her country and is trying to make a notable life for her two children since their move to the US by founding a business through which she designs and sells elaborate traditional garments.

• Naja, Umma’s daughter, is Midnight's 7-year-old sister.

• Akemi, a 16-year-old Japanese girl, lives in Brooklyn where she is working for her uncle while her father continues working in Japan. Akemi speaks Japanese, Mandarin, and Korean, but she is slowly learning English. An art prodigy, she attends college-level classes at Pratt Institute. She and Midnight tell their associates that they are only friends, but they actually love each other romantically.

• Ameer, described as one of Midnight’s close friends, is a 12-year-old who is mostly interested in girls. Ameer and Midnight fight frequently in a playful way. After a street fight between the two characters ends, Midnight explains his and Akemi's relationship.

• Chris, a hustler who plays basketball for money, lives with his mother and strict, protective father, and is another of Midnight's close friends.

Plot

As Midnight tries to manage his life with Akemi and look out for his family and hang with his friends while managing his family's newly opened business, he comes to terms with struggles that occur from day to day. As he approaches these problems, he is forced to leave his one true love alone.

Reception

Reviews of Midnight were mixed. One reviewer explained, "Souljah's sensitive treatment of her protagonist is honest and affecting with some realistic crisis." But the review continued with a critique: "Unfortunately, a slack plot and slow pacing cause serious bloat, and Souljah's distinctive prose is woefully unpolished."^[1]

References

1. ^ Atria (Dwxyz). 25 August 2008. 

External links

• Simon & Schuster