On reading Douglas Bell’s novel THREADS OF PURPOSE, one is struck by its thoughtfulness. Beyond the excellent pacing, careful plotting, and fully formed, well-rounded characters is a study of the pressures and expectations of life as a young Black man in America.

Asher is a doctor in a medical residency at a prominent hospital in Texas. He is intelligent and innately vibrant, but indifferent about a profession he felt obliged to enter. Fashion design speaks to him far more clearly, and he dreams of designing ball gowns for the Met Gala. He's also short of cash and worn down by the grind of working in an understaffed medical facility. Having fallen back in with Jim (a former school friend and football player-turned-drug dealer), Asher spies the opportunity for a side hustle and works a scam: illicitly acquiring prescription drugs and then passing them on to Jim in exchange for a cut. But after Jim gives the police Asher’s name, Asher is arrested and charged with drug-related offences. After bail, meditation helps him get perspective on his life.

Bell’s writing is highly lucid. Erudite and attentive to his readers’ needs, he flits easily between Asher’s milieu and that of the life he left behind: a murder witnessed as a child, a father taken away, time spent in foster care. The contrast between that life—and indeed the life led by Jamal, Asher’s brother, who languishes in prison himself as the story opens—is profound. Bell is also quick to point out the peculiarities of the position of a Black man who has achieved in life. Without the invisible knapsack with which white people can combat trouble and poor luck, and acutely aware of his relative rarity at the hospital, Asher feels the weight of expectation—of being responsible for how others perceive Black people, and of being forced to ignore (or else deal with) the countless microaggressions that come his way on a daily basis.

The occasional preachiness and a denouement that's quite at odds with the rest of the novel do not detract from a fine, artfully constructed narrative. Bell imbues Asher and those around him with believability, and lavishly celebrates what all too many people in the jailhouse that Asher visits lack: the possibility of a second chance.

Written by Douglas Bell, THREADS OF PURPOSE is a thoughtful, artfully written story that deals with the expectations and pressures of being Black in modern America.

~ Craig Jones for IndieReader

Link to purchase book from author's website.