At the center of Babylon Boyz is a classic, powerful conflict of interest for its main character, Dante. It is Shakespearean in its intensity and its meaning. Hamlet faces choices no more difficult to make than those Dante must make, and the social implications of what choices Dante makes are nearly as profound. Embodied in Dante is a profound conflict between self-interest and the welfare of the community.

Dante and his "homeys" are well-drawn figures, each a unique personality. Dante himself is thirteen years old, bright but physically underdeveloped because he has a diseased heart caused by his mother's use of cocaine while she was pregnant with him. He speaks bitterly of having a chance to live to be thirty years old if he is careful.

In contrast to Dante, Pook has a magnificent body. Not only well built and handsome, he is athletically...