Green

In his debut novel, Green (2018), Sam Graham-Felsen employs hip-hop slang to grant his narrator’s voice a streetwise verisimilitude as he tells the story of a cultural and historical awakening experienced by a teenage boy.

The story is narrated by David Greenfield, commonly referred to simply as Green. In 1992, he is one of just two white students attending Martin Luther King Middle School in Boston. There is a public school that is majority white, but he and his friend Kev (the other white student) lost the lottery to attend that school, and Green’s parents won’t consider private school because they consider themselves progressive.

Green begins sixth grade. Waiting for the bus that morning, he meets a young black boy and notices he is looking at a Boston Celtics magazine. They board the bus together. Green tries to sit in the back, but a very large student that Green suspects is older refuses to let him sit next to him. At school, the principal greets him and Kev, making a special note of his Jewish last name. Kev is Green’s best friend; he has it easier because he is often mistaken for being Puerto Rican, and he is a star basketball player.



Green is bullied at school, mainly by a boy named Angel. He sees the black kid from the bus stop again and learns his name is Marlon. They become friends, bonding over a shared love for the Boston Celtics. Green regards Larry Bird as a role model because Bird is also one of a very small number of white people in the NBA. Green observes that Marlon is very kind to everyone and very interested in his schoolwork. They begin to spend time together outside of school, and both confess they want to get into the prestigious Boston Latin public school; they begin studying together for the entrance exam.

Marlon accompanies Green home and meets his younger brother Benmo. Benmo stopped speaking a year earlier, and despite their politics, Green’s parents have placed him in private school. Marlon is very nice to Benmo, and Green appreciates this. Green tells Marlon that his parents both attended Harvard, but because they work at non-profits and due to their convictions, there is no private school for him.

Green’s mother invites Marlon and Green to a Harvard alumni event. Marlon is treated as a potential troublemaker simply because he is black, and Green does not like any of the people he meets, finding them very superior. Still, both boys wish to attend Harvard someday.



Marlon is poor and lives in the projects with his grandmother. He is enthusiastically Christian, which intrigues Green. At home, Green’s life is secular, although his grandfather, Cramps, fled to America to escape the Holocaust. Cramps is always pushing Green to do well in school. Green and Marlon launch a business together shoveling snow, although Marlon has to hide while Green makes arrangements, as many people won’t hire a black boy. One day, an angry customer hits Marlon, and Green does nothing. Marlon is very angry with him for not helping him.

The day of the Boston Latin entrance exam, Green and Marlon sit next to each other. Green panics, believing he can’t remember anything he has studied, and he gives in to temptation by copying some answers from Marlon’s test. Marlon sees this and becomes even angrier with Green. For some time, Marlon treats Green coldly; Green finally purchases an expensive Celtics jacket to make amends. Marlon forgives Green. At school, the bullying becomes worse, and at one point, Angel pulls a knife, threatening Green with it. Green does not tell anyone about this incident despite his terror.

Marlon invites Green to Christmas Mass, and Green falls in love with the pomp and circumstance surrounding Christianity. He asks Marlon to baptize him. Marlon finds this very strange, but agrees, performing the ceremony in his bathtub.



Green receives a letter from Boston Latin and learns he has been put on the waitlist. He asks Marlon about his letter, and Marlon confesses that he was accepted, but he is not excited about it. At school, there is a stabbing, and Green’s parents finally learn that Angel threatened him. Angel is punished, but this only increases his hatred of Green, whom he continues to bully. One day while Angel is abusing Green, a girl named Vicki intervenes, hitting Angel; Green finally feels that he has made a place for himself at school.

Green is told that he is being taken off the waitlist and can attend Boston Latin. He excitedly tells Marlon, but Marlon confesses that he lied about his own acceptance, becoming angry. He ends their friendship. At the end of the novel, and Green writing Marlon a heartfelt letter asking him to be his friend again.