Trick Baby

Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim    320 pages

Trick Baby is the true story of Johnny O'Brien, a biracial man that Iceberg Slim met when they were cellies in the joint (prisoners sharing a cell in a prison).    Johnny O'Brien's mother was black and his father white and though his parents were married, after his father left him and his Mom, other parents in the neighborhood referred to him in front of their kids as a "trick baby" insinuating his mother was a prostitute and he was the illegitimate child of one of her customers.  Not so.  Johnny's parents had been in love until his Dad just up and left them because he was too weak to deal with being ostracized by his white family for marrying a black woman.  His Dad's people did not acknowledge Johnny nor his mother and without his father around to take care of them times were hard and money sparse.  Because Johnny had such light skin, blue eyes and blonde hair the other kids in the neighborhood weren't allowed to play with him and started calling him, "trick Baby," the put down they heard from their parents.   Johnny had a hard time until he met an older man called Blue who had style, class and money that he made his living from grifting off the greed of "suckers."   .Blue taught Johnny several "cons" that they would get over on people with and score big money off of.   Enough to keep them in sharp suits and shoes and living the high life.   Johnny's "whiteness" was a valuable tool in conning white and black people as he and Blue could play that he was an unsuspecting white man and it worked like a charm getting over on people.    An excellent book.   I am a fan of Iceberg Slim's books.   Whether he is talking about himself or relating someone else's story that he knew,  his writing is real and honest in relating tales of life as he knew it.    I would recommend this story to anyone who is a fan of urban writing, for fans of events and life in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and early 70s simpler times that were more complex than many people realize.   Great story, like all of Iceberg Slim's books.

 - Shirley J.