SOURCE: A review of Billy, in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 240, No. 35, August 30, 1993, p. 73.

[In the following review, the critic praises Billy for its intensity.]

A talented writer makes his debut in this stark, harrowing novel [Billy] of a young black boy's death. Forcefully told, though sometimes veering into melodrama, the story vivifies the consequences of racial hatred. In 1937, in the small town of Banes, Miss., 10-year-old Billy Lee Turner lives Albert French

with his mother in one of the miserable shanties of the black ghetto called the Patch. Headstrong Billy convinces another youngster to enter the white area of town, where they are attacked by teenaged cousins who are enraged to see black boys in "their" pond. Seeking to escape, Billy impulsively stabs one of the girls; she dies, and the white community works itself into a paroxysm of rage and violence. Though Billy is too young to comprehend...