Review: Blood Father

Most casual drug users probably never wonder about how their drugs reach their dealer, any more than they wonder how their tomatoes reach their supermarket. The violent lives of the workers in the lower levels of the drug trade seem unreal to the comfortable people. Those lives are of importance only to those who are directly involved - to losers like gang members and addicts.

'Blood Father' is not about wilfully ignorant mainstream drug users, nor about rich drug lords. It is about two people on the fringes of society, tangled in the lower levels of the drug trade. Two losers, you might say.

These losers are Link and his daughter Lydia. Link had been a Hell's Angel, an enforcer and employee in the drug trade, until he ended up in prison. He is now on parole, living an honest and sober life and searching for his daughter Lydia. Lydia was raised in a series of middle class homes. She was born with a difficult temperament; she is unable to control herself and her mother has failed to tame her with doctors' advice and drugs. Like many other confused and wild youth, she leaves home young, moving from person to person, house to house, in a circle of casual friends, living in a fog of drugs and parties. At one of these parties she meets a special young man. Their relationship is catastrophic; she calls her father in desperation, begging for help. He comes to her rescue, struggles to protect her, and tries to disentangle her from a situation neither of them fully understand.

This portrayal of a father-daughter relationship is not in the least sympathetic or sentimental. Both are difficult, damaged people; neither is soft or gentle. They are foul-mouthed, tricky and sometimes violent. Nevertheless, both are deeply human. Their battles with themselves, each other and their enemies, reveal how the drive for survival and the struggle to find meaning can work together in people who appear so very unpromising. It is fascinating to watch an aging ex-con try to build a satisfying life and legacy from so little, and a troubled girl try to discover her own strength and a reason to use it.

Although both Link and Lydia's lives have been shaped by the sale and use of drugs, they are unimportant to the rich and powerful in either underground or mainstream society. They are losers; the kind of people whose life and death get at most a few minutes' mention on the TV news. But in this book, these minor characters - the burned out biker and the runaway girl - are fully human, and cannot be so easily dismissed. This tough portrayal of a pair of survivors is very rewarding.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Cheryl - RAM

Book Review: Blood Father