Bingo's Run by James A. Levine
Release Date - January 2013
James A. Levine
Spiegel & Grau
Book Review by Bob Walch
Bingo
Mwolo is not only a fast runner but he is also gainfully employed, if
you call working for a drug dealer in Nairobi “gainful”
employment. The boy delivers drugs for his boss and is kept quite
busy until one day he stumbles on a murder that endangers his life.
To
protect the young boy, his employer sends Bingo off to St. Michael’s
Orphanage where the youngster encounters a group of individuals as
corrupt as those he rubbed shoulders with on the streets.
This
street wise boy soon finds an American woman is interested in
adopting him, but Bingo is too savvy to believe she really cares
about his well-being or desires to make his life better. In turns out
Bingo knows a reclusive but talented local artist named Thomas Hunsa
and Bingo’s “benefactor” really wants to use the child to
strike a deal to obtain Hunsa’s art before anyone else discovers
him.
Caught
up in a web of deceit and empty promises, Bingo has to come to terms
with who he is, his situation and what he wants to do with his life.
This is a pretty demanding situation for an adult let alone a young
boy. With a little guidance from a caring hotel maid named Charity,
the boy manages to see his way clear of the dilemma he finds himself
in and perhaps the future won’t be too bleak.
An
endearing character who has the ability to make you both laugh and
weep, Bingo’s story is one that you won’t soon forget. The
picture James Levine paints of Kibera, one of Kenya’s largest
slums, is quite graphic but it is an environment that Bingo
understands and one he has learned to survive in. It is when the boy
leaves this world and enters another he is less familiar with that
this novel becomes quite interesting.
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