From
the very beginning, nothing is simple about '85. The language is
raw (make no mistake; this is a work for mature readers), and
collaborators Danny Simmons and Floyd Hughes don't shy away from
depicting New York street life. It's an in-your-face kind of work.
Moreover, it's a fast-moving story that challenges you to keep up.
But if you do, what you find inside is worth the effort.

Crow Shade, a junkie and a thief, is our guide to this tour of the
Manhattan art scene during the Reagan years. As the book opens,
Crow has just stolen some art from his friend Danny's apartment.
Danny is a talented painter, and Crow has the idea of selling his
works on the street to get some money for rent and drugs. He passes
the paintings off as his own and gets his first taste of the
bizarre bohemia of the art world.

A friend introduces Crow to the beautiful Candy, who agrees to
represent his artwork. This is the time of rampant street art,
mixed in with a pre-Giuliani cleaning of the city, and Simmons and
Hughes have a lot of fun making sure they recreate the scene in
'85. The city comes alive in all its hedonistic, savage glory, a
debaucherous cauldron of earthly delights and decadences. But Crow
is no stranger to the city's seedy underbelly himself, even if he
comes at it from the less rarefied air of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuy.
All in all, he spends just three days there, but it's enough to
send him on a new path in life. In three days, he manages to go
from art thief to artist, and the luck that has gotten him this far
in life manages to pull him somewhere new and unexpected.

Crow as a protagonist is tough to dislike, even though he gives you
so many reasons to resist him. He's a con and a cheat, but he's
honest about his dishonesty, in his own way. The son of a police
officer who committed suicide in the early '70s, he's engaging for
his flawed view on life, his sense of entitlement and his offbeat
ethical side, which still manages to shine through. He's no role
model, and this is no morality play --- but still he's someone with
a nature that is imminently relatable.

Simmons and Hughes have based '85 on Simmons's novel THREE DAYS AS
THE CROW FLIES, but familiarity with that previous work isn't
needed to enjoy '85 --- although maybe a crash helmet is. It's a
rocky landing back in time nearly a quarter of a century, but
Simmons and Floyd capture it all well. Making your way on the
streets of New York in 1985 was hardly easy, and there's no reason
a book about it should be any less tough. That it's such a powerful
and evocative tale is an extra treat.