Love Don't Live Here No More: Book One of Doggy Tales

Not even remotely interesting.

This book is a typical ghetto tale. Poor kid, raised by a single mom, religious family, kid has early sexual awakening, gets mixed with the wrong crowd, gets mixed up in drugs, starts using drugs, starts selling drugs, graduates from marijuana to heroin, then his mentor in the drug trade gets killed in his own game. Sound familiar? It should be. This is a very common story often heard about the average African-American. It's boring because we've heard it all before, because this type of story isn't fiction. It's real.

The challenge here is to tell a tale that no one has ever heard before, or at least tell a tale in a way that's never been done before. This story fails on both counts. Apparently, there is truth in the old saying "Too many cooks spoil the broth," as Snoop Dogg seems to have kept a leash on David Talbert's creativity. Talbert is an award-winning playwright, also a filmmaker and television producer. There is no denying that both Snoop and Talbert are artists, but it's clear that it's Snoop's story, and Talbert is merely the scribe. And in the effort to tell it ghetto-style, the way Snoop wants it, Talbert sacrificed literary value over historical accuracy.

Again, this book is a waste of time. This will be one of those works which Talbert would just like to bury in his closet. This is just Book One, but I'm not really interested in reading the rest.


Rating: One and a half stars.