Black Leather and Blue Denim

Black Leather and Blue Denim is a '50s novel about greaser gang conflict in Levittown, Pennsylvania. J.W. narrates the story. J.W. (age twelve) and his family move into the Dogwood Hollow section of Levittown in the spring of '54. He soon makes friends with Carnie, the neurotic son of a carnival barker, and Tinker, a mechanically inclined, vindictive kid with destructive tendencies. The three boys are picked on and harassed by older greasers from Kenwood, another section of Levittown. In April of '54, the Fairless Hills Steel Mill opens, and the Caracas, a Venezuelan ship is carrying the…