Book review on "Honky" by Dalton Conley

“Honky,” by Dalton Conley is a book about race, and is also a coming-of age story of a white boy and his family growing up in a neighborhood of predominantly African American and Latino housing projects on New York’s Lower East Side.
The first chapter Conley tells us about his mother and father, and what their professions are. His mother is a writer, and his father is a painter. Conley shows us how his mom and dad differ in their way of thinking of engaging his curiosity, especially when each of them try to make him understand the concept of a new sister. His dad had him paint a picture of the baby, and he liked it so much he hung it on the wall. His mom made him verbally describe what his sister would look like, and what she was going to be like. I think this is an important part of Conley’s arguments, because in order to understand his situation, we need to understand why he is in them. His parents were not regular strict parents, but artists, and had a different perspe...