Red Baker

by: Robert Ward

Published by: St. Martin's

Review by Kathy Perschmann

This novel won the PEN West Best Novel of 1985 and is now is new in paperback. Ward, the author of seven novels, and is also a screenwriter who has worked on Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice.

Red Baker is laid off from his 20-year job in the steel mills of Baltimore and loses it big time--drugs, booze and women (Crystal, a dancer at Lily's Bar). He and his friend Dog struggle to survive after the layoffs with horrible jobs and humiliation after humiliation.

Red's wife Wanda and his teenage basketball star son, Ace, stick by him as much as they can, but it is difficult. Despairing, Dog and Red eventually succumb to the lure of crime, and Dog is killed. Now the man they robbed, Vinnie, is after Red. He is beat up and told he has a few weeks to return the money. Red thinks his only way out is to kill Vinnie, and he urges Wanda to take Ace and leave town. Wanda however, has a different idea. Red's family sticks by him, and helps hold him together.

Ward has written a moving and compelling drama of blue-collar suffering and the desperate effort to survive.

Armchair Interviews says: Although dark and heavy, the story has a redeeming end.

Author's Web site: http://www.robert-ward.com