Man Booker 2011

My review of Pigeon English as published in Lime magazine:

It has been fascinating to observe the trajectory of Stephen Kelman’s first book, Pigeon English. Before it was published last March, Waterstone’s hailed it as one to watch. Prior to that 12 publishers fought to have it and Kelman was given a big advance. It made the shortlist for the 2011 Man Booker prize and is also up for the Guardian First Book Award.

Kelman has imagined the life of a Damilola Taylor type character, before the fateful day when he was murdered by boys, not that much older than he was. The narrator, Harri, is an 11 year-old Ghanaian, who might be living in London illegally, with his mother and sister. His father and younger sister are still in Ghana. Harri and his friends are trying to solve the murder of a school friend, by interrogating their school colleagues and neighbours, in what tends to be described as a ‘gritty’ South London tower block estate.

Harri and friends have adventures in a world that is not at all innocent, the issues of loyalty, gangs, abuse against women, and single parenthood are all considered. Unfortunately since these are all viewed through the eyes of an 11 year-old boy, there is not really much insight, or real development of the issues. While this is a book for adults, it is clear that the publishers are positioning it as a book to be read in schools, and I’ve no doubt that it is where it will end up. A shame really, as there are so many other books that better cover multi-racial London.

The review above is about 200 words for Lime magazine. My other points on the Stephen Kelman are as follows: 

I am pleased that he wrote about this experience. More people need to write about real life on the estates of Britain. Kelman is most authentic in the voice of Harri as a young boy,  his innocence is amusing, and the desire for adventures, to help solve the crime and do good is appealing. I found that some of the language/dialogue was a bit repetitive - even though I imagine that pre-teen boys do have words that they overuse. I am less convinced that it this was a particularly Ghanian experience, though Kelman has said that he grew up in such a community. The relationship with the sister worked well, as an elder sister myself I can look back and remember the snotty behaviour, and at other times the 'in cahoots' sibling bonding. 

I prefer the Australian cover

Overall I enjoyed it far more than I thought that I would, but it felt as though it had been heavily edited. So for example the tense aspects of relationships between West Indians and Africans, Eastern Europeans and Black people are touched upon but never fully developed and then disappear all together. Kelman portrays a community where no-one is really enjoying life or particularly caring for one another, and despite difficult times, I just don't believe that this is a realistic portrayal. It seems odd that he seems to believe that everyone in living in estates in the UK are depressed, angry, cheap, abusers, abused, giving up or just plain wicked. It's not that hopeless, people do have ambition and dreams and the gumption to get things done for themselves and their communities. It's a shame that this was not shown.

Another reason that I think that the book has been edited by someone not quite understanding what Kelman's getting at is around the pigeon. Unfortunately I have to mention the pigeon. It is the weakest bit of the book. I think that it is supposed to be some greater being, someone/thing looking out for Harri, that he grows to believe in.  It does not work because it  allowed to establish as a theme/character and certainly does not work as anything allegorical. The only funny bit of the whole book for me was that the pigeon seemed to have knowledge of local government policy on pigeon clearing. Having said that, every time I see a magpie now, I think of them as the gangsters of the urban bird world. 

Also on the shortlist is Ghanian-Candian Esi Edugyan's second book Half Blood Blues. 

I have bought Half Blood Blues but not yet read it yet. 

Here is Esi on this morning's (17 October 2011) BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Esi on Today

Her story is of black jazz musicians in Germany during the second world war. Years later friends go back to search for the friend that was left behind as the Nazi's came to power and stormed through Europe.  Here's Bernadine Evaristo's review of it from The Guardian. She did not like it all, though she admires Esi as a writer, and goes on to recommend Destined to Witness: Growing up Black in Nazi Germany by Hans Massaquoi instead. 

For my work's book club I have also read The Sisters Brothers;  I actually enjoyed it very much, I did not really know anything about it, as it was selected as the book club read by ballot. It reminds me of the film In Bruges, and I while I don't do gruesome at all really, the idea of hired killers aching for a better life resonates with me; and both the film and this book are wickedly funny. Patrick De Witt is an excellent writer. The work's next book club read is Julian Barnes'  The Sense of An Ending which I did vote for in the ballot, as I was unlikely to read it otherwise and I want to know what all the fuss is about. I have not opened it yet, but its short - more of a novella, so I really don't feel overwhelmed by the supposed grandeur of writing, even though it is about death. I heard Barnes say on the radio the other day - 'it is not about dying.'  Barnes is the favourite to win the Man Booker and if he wins will keep the literary traditionalists happy. If you include A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards, I will have read far more of the Man Booker list this year, than I have in many previous years. That is many many years when I bought no Booker reads at all. If the Man Booker prize is about getting people to read good stories, things they might not have tried before, then I believe it is an absolute success. I understand that far more of the 2011 shortlisted books have been bought than in previous years, so people have really been inspired to read by these works. We should leave the harping old codgers to enjoy their fusty old un-intelligible literary works.