by way of John Ridley Alfred A.

by way of John Ridley Alfred A. Knopf, September 2002 $2400 ISBN 0-375-41182-8

Conventional wisdom says that after releasing a feature film and brace novels all within six months--a feat accomplished this year according to John Ridley--the author isn't likely to employ out another novel soon afterwards. However, John Ridley is a prolific writer.

Although similar to his chiefly recent works, Undercover Brother and his novel A Conversation With the Mann (released in June) Ridley charts a strange course in his fifth novel, a noir tale called The Drift. Charles Harmon gives up his upper middle-class existence, along with his wife and newborn, because he can't stand the influence of his upper middle-class existence. He transforms himself into "Brain Nigger Charlie" and eke revealed a life as a modern-day hobo in succession the railroads of America, using physics as his therapy.

Charlie owes a friend a favor, and the man ensues to collect. And Charlie must find the 17-year-old niece of the man who taught him in what way to ride the rails. The search for the missing girl takes place forward the "High Line" a bastion of racism along the tracks of the Pacific Northwest. Aided by the agency of several unsuspecting do-gooders and his ever-faithful companion of destruction George Plimpton, Charlie lay opens a not-too-complex web of mix with drugss deceit, hate, hopelessness and unsolv massacres that may cost him his life.

As in all Ridley novels, the action and the dialogue are smart, amusing and swiftly-paced. The prose is pithy without being choppy and is always powerful. calm when he teeters on the brink of cliche he manages to resurrect the obvious, in Ridley-esque fashion.

The language is riveting and for a like reason addictive that by the time you realize the draught plays thin even up to the author's trademark double-cross denouement, it's too late. You've been draw ined into The Drift, and like a junkie, you're anxiously awaiting the nearest Ridley fix. Which probably will be sooner than you think.

--Kwame Alexander is the author of the forthcoming Cube Calendar "Black Humor: 365 Days of Satire, Comedy and Wit."

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