Please help me identify a young adult novel from the 70's?

Cafe Society
1

Sometime when I was in Jr. high school, I remember reading a YA novel that revolved largely around Los Angeles street gangs. The plot was essentially about a teenage protagonist, involved in gang violence, who is convicted of some crime (I don’t remember what) and is sent to a juvie denention facility where a gang system is still in place and some conventional, gang on gang prison drama ensues (I seem to remember a charismatic black gang leader as basically running the juvie prison and being a sort of oracle in the book). Eventally the protagonist is released, tries to start his own gang, and is murdered at the end.

The book was fairly tough in that it used realistic language ( a lot of profanity, including a liberal use of the f-word) and some unusually brutal violence for a YA book (including gang murders).

I specifically remember an opening scene in which the protagonist is being chased into an alley by a rival gang after roving out of his own territory and (the opening words are something along the lines of, “Goddamn fucking fence”), and I specifically remember that the gang he starts at the end is called “the Three” because it only has three members in it.

I seem to remember that the gangs cover a multiplicty of races (black gangs, latino gangs, etc.), but the protagonist is white.

This book would have been written sometime around the mid to late 70’s. It’s depiction of LA gangs would look anachronistic now - no Crips and Bloods, no guns, no crack, no rap - but it didn’t skimp on profanity and violence.

I know the author was somebody pretty well-established. He wasn’t anybody obscure. I had thought it might be Robert Cormier, but his wiki page doesn’t show anything which matches what I remember. I know the author was respected for other work, though and has a recognizable name (I just can’t, for the life of me, remember what it was). I do remember that the same author also wrote another book about a mentally retarded kid who is bullied and harrassed by other kids, and even adults and then is eventually murdered at the end. The author’s nihilism, pessimism and downbeat endings were what attracted me to him, and this book I’m trying to remember the title of stood aout to me at a young age because of its intensity and nihilism. The author didn’t take the conventional route with the story or with any of his stories. The gang book basically concludes that there IS no way out of the LA gangs.

I guess I’m looking for the name of the author as much as the title. He kind of subverted the expected trajectories of YA novels and said that life sucked and people sucked, and I always appreciated that. Am I ringing any bells here? Thanks in advance to any help.

2

Sorry, Dio but I’m too tired to search for synopsis of these books. Good luck.

3

I believe that was The Hardy Boys Cap Some Punk-Ass Gansgta Disciples

4

Do you remember any dialog from the book? I’ve found books I only vaguely remembered by doing a Google book search using some snippet of dialog I remembered from reading them the first time. For example, I found Smithereens by doing a Google book search for “chrysalis on the underside of a branch of a tree.”

5

I was going to guess The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, but I’ve never read it, or seen the film, and the description doesn’t really match.

6

That was my first guess too, but as I recall, it wouldn’t fit the OP’s parameters: “The Outsiders” took place in Oklahoma and author S.E. Hinton was pretty obscure at the time of original publication.

7

Answer might be to get a copy of an SE Hinton and see if the back cover has an “if you liked this novel, you might like …” section. Could point you to the author.

Or of course an internet equivalent.

8

I remember a (Tab, Arrow?) Scholastic book club selection called “Durango Street” from about that time. Whatshisface the protagonist "doesn’t want to join a street gang, but it’s the ONLY way to survive. So he joins the ‘(Shadows?)’, a fighting gang that controls most of the neighborhood. “Ya gets beat inta this gang’, its leader says, 'and ya gets beat out of it!”. Etc. That’s all I’ve got.

9

I found thison Google books. Looks like it might be the quote you remember. I can’t work out the story it comes from though. Can anyone tell?

10

Sure it wasn’t San Diego? The quote I linked to comes from page 142, and San Diego is mentioned on pages 148, 146, 147, 149.

11

Thanks, but I’m sure it was LA, and the quote I remember is from the very opening line of the book (though it might not be exact. It might have said “wall” instead of “fence.” The opening scene is of the protagonist being chased and cornered in an alley.

I now also have a memory that one of the gangs was called the Nomads, and I have it in my head that the author’s first name started with a K, but wasn’t a usual name like Ken or Kevin, I’m thinking something like Kipp or Kitt, but Google hasn’t helped much with those.

12

It definitely wasn’t The Outsiders or any other S.E. Hinton. I read all her books as a kid and am very familiar with them. This book was much more tough and raw in terms of language and content, and the author was a male.

13

Kin Platt?

14

A long shot as it’s neither young adult nor from the 1970s (it’s from the 1980s) but I’ll mention it anyway: Earth Angels by Gerald Petievich. The reason I mention it is it involves L.A. gangs and there’s a fence in the opening scene (though not a line like the one in the OP).

15

That’s gotta be it. I found this on one of those paper writing sites about Platt’s book Headman:

Gangs, Nomads, weird name that starts with a K. I think we have a winner.

16

That would likely be “Hey, Dummy” then. Yep, looks like it all fits.

17

Yes! Kin Platt is it, and Headman is it. Thanks, all.

18

The Hennepin County Library system has some Kin Platt, but it doesn’t look like they have your book - it’s all his children’s books and mysteries instead. Bummer.

19

Yayyyyyy!