Jamrach's Menagerie - Wendy's Review

A mile from the shoal we hove to. A ghostly feather appeared, far, far out to sea, just for a second, and my heart was beating very very fast. Tim, down from his eyrie, ran over to me, out of breath. “This is it.” He could hardly get it out. “This is it, this it, Jaf,” he said and gripped my hand hard. My mouth had gone dry. – from Jamrach’s Menagerie -

Jaffy Brown is growing up on the streets of London in the late nineteenth century. He is a fearless eight year old when he encounters a Bengal tiger on the street, reaches up to pet it on the nose, and ends up dangling from the tiger’s mouth. That experience introduces Jaffy to a man named Jamrach and his menagerie of animals found around the world. Jaffy is invited to work for Jamrach where he befriends Tim, a boy a bit older than him whose competitive nature causes some strain in the friendship. When both boys are given the opportunity to find and capture a sea dragon as part of a three year whaling expedition, they do no hesitate to sign on to the adventure. What unfolds is an experience which will indelibly change their lives as they brave the unforgiving power of the sea together.

Carol Birch’s Orange Prize nominated novel of a young street urchin’s coming of age on a whaling boat is filled with quirky characters who are not always  likable. The book is narrated by an adult Jaffy who is looking back on his boyhood years, and so there is an adult feel to this tale of youth. Early on, Birch establishes the uneasy friendship between Tim and Jaffy. The early chapters are devoted to the boys’ time in London and is filled with descriptions of the rough city streets. I found the early going slow paced, but when Birch begins the saga of the whaling expedition, the novel picks up considerably.
Birch’s writing is highly descriptive and allows for a solid sense of place.

The sea lapped over the transom, poured up the deck and swirled about the submerged companionways, and a colossal shift took place in the heart of the ship as three or four hundred barrels of oil moved as one with a sound like the end of all days. Sound: the sea, the wild wind, the voices of our crew as the brittle, wooden speck we lived on rolled over like the slippery pole at the fair, and the sky flew up as the swingboat soared. – from Jamrach’s Menagerie -

The latter half of Jamrach’s Menagerie is not for the faint of heart. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I will say that the themes of survival and sacrifice are strong. Many of the images in this part of the novel are disturbing and graphic. There were times I set the book aside and was not eager to pick it back up again.

I have mixed feelings about Jamrach’s Menagerie. I found the middle part of the novel compelling and fast paced, a nice change from the first part of the book which dragged for me. Some of the latter parts were a bit too graphic for my liking. On the other hand, Birch is skilled at developing her characters and setting the scene. She brings to life the glory, pain, and terror which were found on the whaling ships in the late nineteenth century. Jamrach’s Menegarie is, at its heart, a sea adventure.

Readers who enjoy a good yarn and want to experience life on the high seas through the eyes of a young boy, might want to give this one a try. Birch peels back the skin of her characters and exposes their emotions in a raw and dark way that is hard to read at times. Perhaps it is this which makes this book the most memorable for me.

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Half-Blood Blues - Wendy's Review

Jazz. Here in Germany it become something worse than a virus. We was all of us damn fleas, us Negroes and Jews and low-life hoodlums, set on playing that vulgar racket, seducing sweet blond kids into corruption and sex. It wasn’t a music, it wasn’t a fad. It was a plague sent out by the dread black hordes, engineered by the Jews. Us Negroes, see, we was only half to blame – we just can’t help it. Savages just got a natural feel for filthy rhythms, no self-control to speak of. But the Jews, brother, now they cooked up this jungle music on purpose. All part of their master plan to weaken Aryan youth, corrupt its janes, dilute its bloodlines. – from Half-Blood Blues -

Hieronymus Falk, Sid Griffiths and Chip Jones are part of a jazz group living in Germany during 1939. It is a dangerous time for blacks in a country where Hitler’s reach is great. They are banned from playing their music, and then an altercation occurs which puts their lives in danger. The group flees to Paris and moves in with the beautiful and sultry American singer, Delilah. But war is coming to France as well, and before long jealousy and betrayal coupled with the uncertainty of war leave the group at odds. One morning when Hiero and Sid go out for milk, Hiero is arrested while Sid looks on, and the young and talented jazz musician disappears. Years later, in 1992, Sid and Chip return to Berlin to celebrate the life of Hiero whose early music has been resurrected. Old rivalries and forgotten history resurface as Sid must come to terms with what really happened in Paris so many years ago.

Esi Edugyan’s Booker nominated novel, Half-Blood Blues, is historical fiction which centers around the world of jazz during the years of World War II. Narrated by Sid in a rich dialect of American slang, it moves back and forth from 1939 to 1992, gradually uncovering the complex and conflicting relationships of the characters. Sid and Chip have an uneasy yet lasting friendship which is marred by the day Hiero disappeared. The dialogue between the men is one of mockery and jesting, and is filled with slang which was, at first, a bit distracting for me. The narrative is a reconstruction of a period in time, filled with musical references which evoke a sense of place.

Delilah is the spark which ignites the tension in the novel – a beautiful woman with a seductive personality who has the power to divide loyalties. Edugyan is quite skilled at character development, giving readers a deep look into the lives of her conflicted characters through the unreliable narration of Sid.
Edugyan tackles the themes of racism, antisemitism, betrayal, and love against the backdrop of the Jazz era in Germany. She is adept at conveying a sense of place through gorgeous descriptive phrasing. As Sid and Chip travel to Poland in 1992 in search of Hiero, they climb aboard a bus “yellow as a toilet inside, the seats foamless and reeking of old piss.”

No sooner had we sat down than the driver got out, banged shut all the baggage doors, and come back on board glowering. He yelled some words in Polish, but no one seemed to pay no attention. Then he sat down, pulled out some levers, started the old engine with a roar, snapped his dusty window open. The brakes groaned, the axles hissing under us like asps. And then there was a sound like an enormous pressure releasing, and that huge rusted bus started shuddering on its big tires, rolling slowly out into the dead road. – from Half-Blood Blues -

Despite its strengths, the novel is not without its faults. I found the pacing very slow in spots – surprisingly during the part of the book set in 1939 which I thought would have been the most intriguing. Instead, I found myself most enjoying the narrative with Sid and Chip as old men. Although there is supposed to be some mystery to what exactly happened in Paris and with Hiero, I found the tension in the plot to be a bit underwhelming. The use of dialect in the novel is both a strength and a weakness. Early on, I struggled to stay in the story, battling the unfamiliar jargon and slang. Later, I recognized this vernacular as an effective device to understand the characters better. Still, I think the use of language in the book may be difficult for some readers.

There is no doubt that Edugyan can write. Half-Blood Blues is a laudable and quite literary effort that is really about relationships and human flaws. Edugyan uses a volatile time in history as a backdrop to her characters which will appeal to readers of historical fiction who also appreciate literary fiction.

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Marie C. Reviews The Sisters Brothers

The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt. Published 2011 by HarperCollins.

I picked up The Sisters Brothers because I had time to kill at the airport one day and because my friend Ann Kingman of Books on the Nightstand said it was great. Well, it is. It is great.

Set in the Gold Rush days of California and Oregon, The Sisters Brothers tells the story of a pair of hired killers and their last big job. Eli and Charlie Sisters are sent to kill Hermann Kermit Warm; Warm has invented a formula for finding gold and their boss wants the formula. Eli narrates the story, and he is a wonderful fictional creation. I don't know how to describe Eli except to say he's a nerd who ended up in the wrong profession. Overweight and bumbling, with a horse as desperate as himself for love and affection, he grows in self-confidence as events go slowly and tragically awry. When the story opens, Charlie is the "lead man," the one who fancies himself in charge. But little by little, slowpoke Eli takes the reins. Eli has a quiet charm and likability that almost make me forget he's a serial killer on a mission.

I have to say, I really loved this book. The story follows their adventures as they chase, and eventually find, Warm and his companion. Along the way they stay in flophouse hotels, shop for clothes, try to seduce women and even learn to brush their teeth. It's a picaresque that never gets dull and never ever loses its way. I can see why it was shortlisted for 2011's Man Booker Prize, although as a Western it seems at first glance an unlikely choice for a prestigious European literary award. But it really is that good.

And it's funny. Like, not exactly laugh-out-loud funny but chuckle-enough-to-get-attention funny. Eli has a terrific sense of humor and the situations the brothers find themselves in are frequently absurd to hilarious. Reading The Sisters Brothers makes me want to pick up my Charles Portis stash, or try something else outside my comfort zone. It's just as great a time as I've had reading all year. I'd strongly recommend it to just about any reader. There is some violence but nothing too graphic- although that one scene where the horse's eye- well, you'll see what I mean, no pun intended, if you take my advice and pick up this wonderful novel.

Introducing Kate

Hello, friends.

I'm pleased to be included in The Complete Booker. I've been steadily reading through Booker winners and nominees for a few years and am glad to be able to share thoughts and reviews with others. As a current full-time graduate student in archaeology, I'm also grateful to Laura for having and maintaining this site for all of us to use!

I am an avid reader across many genres (though I tend to dislike postcolonial fiction) and my reviews range from longer, ponderous pieces to short, casual "thoughts on" posts. Outside of my dissertation research I also enjoy hiking, travelling, good coffee, interesting art, museums, dancing, and I'm taking up knitting again after many years away. I am an expat American living and teaching in a small English town, and relishing the cultural difference.

I won't bore you all with reposting all of my previous Booker posts from my blog, What Kate's Reading, but will link for you to peruse as you choose:

• Mister Pip
• The White Tiger
• The Old Devils
• In a Free State (which is less of a review than a critique of the author's recent statements about women authors)
• Netherland
• A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
• Master Georgie
• The Sisters Brothers
• Never Let Me Go
• Notes on a Scandal
• Atonement
• On Beauty
• Restoration

Wow, I'm actually suddenly rather impressed with myself. (Please note that there were too many characters to label all of these as needed - sorry!)

For my reading here on out I'll either post a current link to my blog or the full review itself. Does anyone have any opinion on that? I don't have any Bookers in the to be read pile as yet, but as my reading is highly dependent on my local library, I have no doubt one will come up soon enough.

Thanks again, and I look forward to being a part of this site.

Athena K's Review - Jamrach's Menagerie

This book should have been right up my alley.  Something about sailing ships and survival stories have always interested me - and this one had both!  Perhaps it is the distilling of the entire world into a small ship, a few people, to evoke the best and worst of human nature that I am interested in.  I also really enjoy ship-story symbolism ala the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  Maybe that is why I feel slightly let down by Carol Birch's beautifully written story. 


Jaffy is an 1850's London street urchin with no prospects, who, as a young boy, survives an encounter with a tiger and enters the world of Jamrach's menagerie of exotic animals.  Jaffy befriends another young assistant, Tim, and together, a few years later, they set sail aboard a whaling ship bound for Indonesia in pursuit of what I understood to be a Komodo Dragon to add to the menagerie.  But the ship falls under a mysterious curse, and the sailors must endure horrible, awful hardships (and that's about all I can say about that without ruining the most gripping part of the book).


Even though in many ways the story echoed off one of my favorite Booker winners the Life of Pi, my complaint with the book is not plot-related.   It is that none of the characters, including and especially Jaffy, seemed well developed.  I had a hard time understanding what motivated most of their actions, the basis for their friendships, and their inner lives.  With more character development, the story could have been a coming-of-age story about Jaffy, or an analysis of the various ways in which we are all caged and free, or (and I think I would be most interested in this) a bromance about the relationship between Jaffy and Tim.  But because the characters were always distant and misty, it fell short of these. And perhaps because it was unclear what the message or purpose of the plot was, the opportunity for the rich and deep foreshadowing and symbolism that I hoped for never materialized.  Upon reflection, I think the dragon was just a dragon, which disappoints me.


But all was not lost.  While Carol Birch seems to lack in character development she excels in scene-setting.  Her locales are punctuated with bright colors, pungent smells, and rich detail.  I agree with others that the London she describes is compelling, as are the Azores, the ship, and the sea during a storm.  Even though I ultimately wanted more character, the atmosphere and gripping story resulted in a pretty good read.

Thoughts on the 2011 Man Booker Shortlist

I've read 5 of the 6 shortlist titles and have written reviews on my blog. My ranking for the prize is as follows:

1. Pigeon English (my review)
2. The Sense of an Ending (my review)
3. Snowdrops (my review) OR The Sisters Brothers (my review) TIED
6. Jamrach’s Menagerie (my review)

The reason Snowdrops and The Sisters Brothers are below The Sense of an Ending is that I have mixed feelings about a 'genre' book winning the prize, but I loved the books themselves. I also have a longish post on my thoughts on the controversy surrounding the list HERE.

Tony Messenger - 2011 Shortlist - Half Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan

“What is luck but something made to run out.”

Esi Edugyan is another Canadian to make the Booker Shortlist, along with Patrick deWitt, but that’s about where the commonality ends, as “Half Blood Blues” is no noir-western.

Our story starts in Paris in 1940 with our narrator and protagonist the American bass player Sid, his best friend from youth and drummer Chip and genius black German trumpeter Hieronymous Falk, sharing a flat in the German occupied city. They are sleeping it off after a night of recording and arguing about whether to go outside to get some milk. That trip outside, where Hiero is taken into custody by the Germans (even though he is German he has no identity papers), sets our story in motion.

Flash forward to 1992 Berlin where Chip and Sid are to attend a festival celebrating Heiro’s music. They are to attend a documentary screening:

Then there was some ruined old fool up there, his dour mug peering out at us. And then I saw with shock that the fool was me.

This novel moves seamlessly between past and current events, the guilt and fear of our narrator’s story becoming more palpable as we turn each page. Our knowledge of his journey, his self belief, jealousy, ignorance grows throughout. The relationship between the three main characters becomes clearer through the historical passages, and all the secrets are slowly revealed until we literally begin to feel Sid’s own fear and dread.

Primarily a story about guilt, friendships, regrets of events long passed, and the eternal existentialist questions, which is set during the Second World War. But added threads of Germany’s treatment of jazz musicians, blacks and other minority groups during that period, brings this story to life. Throw into the mix a jazz theme which comes through in the pitch and passion of the musical passages and wholly believable conversation pieces, using period slang and male sledging and you are transported into the period every time you pick the book up.

‘You brigin that leslie up again?’ Hiero was walking all brisk with them skinny legs of his. ‘You know, every time you drink the rot you go on bout that jack.’

‘She wasn’t no leslie, brother – she was a woman. Bona fide.’

This is a worthy inclusion on the short list and if you love jazz, historical novels and books that weave real life characters and situations into a fictional tale then I would highly recommend this. Although dealing with the horrors of the Second World War this is in a completely different voice and style to “Far to Go”, another novel from the long list. An in my opinion this is a lot more engrossing and readable, but with a different tension. This is Edugyan’s second novel and as I was so impressed by this work, at some stage I will hunt down her debut “The Second Life of Samuel Tyne”.

Personally I have this book as a contender for the main gong, along with “Jamrach’s Menagerie”. I now have Julian Barnes’ “The Sense of an Ending” to read to complete my shortlist reading.

Cost posted at my blog.

Tony Messenger - 2011 Shortlist - Jamrach's Menagerie - Carol Birch

I did post a review of this book on my own blog a couple of days ago, before the short list was announced, but wanted to spend a few days reflecting on this novel before posting here.

I should start off by stating that this is a worthy inclusion to the short list as I was transported by this magnificent novel. Although this is Carol Birch’s 11^th novel I must admit I have not come across her work before. If I was to write a recipe card for this book I would start with a dash of Dickens’ London, mix in a smidgin of “Life of Pi”, add a splash of Sarah Hall’s “Electric Michelangelo”, throw in a spice of Melville’s “Moby Dick”, a whiff of A.S. Byatt and a pinch of Peter Carey’s “Oscar and Lucinda” or “Parrot and Olivier in America”…but all of those aforementioned books would only be the spice as this is an original tale. As I read this novel a number of those books or styles were brought to mind, but just as quickly as they sprung into my thoughts they were lost and I was sucked back into this fantastic tale of journeys, friendships, survival and all so lyrically told.

The novel starts in the Dickens “street-urchin” style of London in the 1850’s, with our narrator Jaffy coming to life, as we’re told the tale of the day he was taken into the jaws of a tiger, and as this is written in the first person, we know he must survive. This event in itself sets off his remarkable chain of life events, he meets Jamrach a rare animal trader, works in his yard with the exotic beasts, we learn of his friendship with Tim and Tim’s twin sister Ishbel, his work puts him in contact with seafarer Dan Rymer and finally a decision is made to go to sea on a whaler, with Tim, in search of a dragon. “It was an eastern dragon we were after….not a real dragon”. On board he meets Skip, a young boy who has visions (or is he just insane?)

It is extremely hard to review this novel beyond this high level sketch of events or beyond the commencement of their journey without adding spoilers, which I do not want to do, nor would it do justice to the way Jaffy's story transpires. Great pages of whaling adventures with reality detail of the toil and horror not seen in the Melville style tales, visits to remote islands, weather events and more….

The last 100 pages or so of the novel are gripping and I can assure you that you will not want to put the book down, although I must admit I did feel it went a little flat for 50 or so pages prior to that, and the first person writing in itself does take away some of the tension. But these are minor criticisms of what is surely a contender for the main gong.

A quick flick through to find relevant quotes and I’ve noticed the change in language and style from early sections to latter as the scene, story, mood and events transpire. I’m glad I got one of the short list contenders correct as I did post on my blog that is was “certain to make the short list” and one that I will certainly revisit someday. I've started "The Last Hundred Days" (from the long list) and will finsh that up before I tackle the two I have yet to read from the short list. At this stage Jamrach's Menagerie is my contender for the award, however with Barnes and Edugyan to go I may change my mind.

2011 Booker Prize Shortlist Announced!

The 2011 Book Prize shortlist was announced today.  The six books vying for the prize are:

• Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending 
• Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie 
• Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers 
• Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues 
• Stephen Kelman Pigeon English  
• A.D. Miller Snowdrops 

Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller are both debut novelists.  Julian Barnes has been shortlisted three times, while Carol Birch was longlisted in 2003.  The winner will be announced on Tuesday, 18 October.

The Guardian calls this "A Booker shortlist long on surprises," particularly due to the omission of Alan Hollinghurst (The Stranger's Child).

What do you think of the shortlist?  Any surprises?

Tony Messenger - 2011 Long List - Snowdrops - A.D. Miller

Snowdrop. 1. An early-flowering bulbous plant, having a white pendent flower. 2. Moscow slang. A corpse that lies buried in the winter snows, emerging only in the thaw.

I had to put the quote – definition – at the start of this review as I’ve finally come across a shocker on the 2011 Booker Prize long list, that quote above is before the novel starts and is probably the only redeeming snippet of this whole dog’s breakfast.

Story goes something like this, a poor self-absorbed narcissist lawyer decides to write a story for his soon to be bride about the time he spent in Russia, where he met a girl and her sister, a dodgy oil merchant (or some such) called “The Cossack” and he gets conned. That’s about it.

I seriously don’t know where to start with this one….if I had an electronic version I would be able to count how many times the word “like” was used, but at a guess it would be close to 300 (and there are only 262 pages!). For example, like a ghost of Russia past, like flowers on a battlefield, like an extra in some paranoid Donald Sutherland film, so many it becomes a distraction – Mr Miller we do know what a simile is!!!. Next up in the ceaseless descriptions of Russian buildings, roads, monuments etc. now if I was an expat Muscovite I may appreciate it, I’m sorry to say that I’m not and I really don’t need a lesson in Russian town planning.

Then we have the characters….oops that’s a typo, they’re caricatures…..fat old locals spouting nonsense proverbs, Russian brides, strippers, gangsters and the endless taxi driver stories….I’m sure the rash generalisation of every single person who crops up in the book would offend just about every living Russian. All of this is coming from the pen of a self absorbed goose that could of in no way shape or form graduated in Law, and we’re meant to believe he’s penning a confession to his fiancée.

This is meant to have three (roughly) concurrent threads, the boy girl thing, the con-man gangster thing and a feeble subplot about the old man who lives downstairs (I’m not giving much away by revealing the title of this book comes from our narrator’s relationship with this guy), and it’s absurd to have such a miniscule sub-plot which really doesn’t impact on any other part of the story being the title of the novel.

I wish Mr Miller well with his change of career (he was the Moscow correspondent for “The Economist” before writing this his debut novel) and I’m sure a Booker Prize long list to his credit will give him a bit of a leg up. I’m also sure that some big blockbuster Hollywood company will pick up the option on this one as it has the good, the bad, the ugly, the love story, the sex scenes, the twist and the setting. Sorry to say it though, this is not literature and I’m surprised it made the long list.

I could go on but there would be no point. The bookmakers mark this one at 16/1 to take out the prize, you should add a couple of zeros to that price and you’d still be under pricing it. If this makes the short list I would be horrified, if it takes out the gong I personally pledge to hand deliver deliver a letter of complaint to all of the judging panel as they are surely as corrupt as the fake Russian gangster con-artists portrayed in this book.

Cross posted at my Booker Prize blog.

Tony Messenger - 2011 Long List - The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt

So far I’ve been fortunate enough to pick up two highly readable, engrossing novels from the 2011 long list. Hence the quick reviews being posted as I’m finishing them at a rapid rate. Surely I’ll come across a struggle sooner or later!!!

Well I’ll be darned – I believe we have our very first Booker Prize Long Listed Western. Dang, I could be wrong (as I haven’t read EVERY book on the Booker long/shortlists). In all honesty, a few pages in and I wondered why this had actually made the list of a Commonwealth Prize as it feels more in the style of a Pulitzer listed novel. Patrick deWitt hails from British Columbia (although now living in Oregon) so a Canadian entry for the prize.

If you can imagine Joel and Ethan Coen making a film from a script by Quentin Tarantino of a Western based on Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” then you’d have part of the picture here. I’m only using film references as the book actually has “Intermissions”.

Eli Sisters is our narrator, with the tale commencing with him and his brother Charlie being engaged by the Commodore to kill Hermann Kermit Warm – a man “foolish enough to steal from the Commodore”. Here the travels commence both physically, and not on a horse with no name, and mentally as the brother’s search out the rogue prospector. A journey into Eli’s self discovery as much as it’s a journey across the Western plains to the Californian gold fields.

With short sharp chapters, a plethora of strange but believable characters (witches, lame horses, searchers of fortunes, Indians, maidens and of course cowboys), remembrances of more innocent times, high violence, noir images and black humour this is a highly enjoyable novel. Although I did read a review in “The Guardian” which slammed its “flat narrative style”. As Eli becomes more attached to his horse Tub (the only horse he’s ever owned with a name – “we did not believe in naming horses”) and as each conversation between the brothers flows we learn more and more about their characters and their past:

“You are always harking back in arguments, but another time is another time and thus irrelevant. Providence brought you that black horse. And what will become of the man who shuns Providence?”

“Providence has no place in this discussion. An Indian ate too much and died, that was the source of my good fortune. The point of my argument is that you were only keen on Tub’s departure when it suited you financially.”

“So I am a drunkard and a miser?”

Throw in a ferry called the Old Ulysses, a one eyed horse, un-named travellers (for example, weeping and mute, or barefoot carrying chickens), much merriment and continual drinking (or recovering from such) and I’m sure you could draw parallels to innumerable characters in literature.

I must admit the novel did fall a little flat between the middle sections as the ceaseless drinking, bickering, fighting, womanising etc. continued. But given the writing style it was quite easy to persist.

What will become of the man who shuns Providence? No spoiler alerts here – you’ll have to read it yourself.

I’d fully understand if lovers of fine high-brow literature (whatever that is) found this a tad base, graphically violent and unworthy of celebration, but on the other side of the coin, could it be time for us to start to embrace pulp noir fiction as part of the Booker canon?

I must admit I found this a highly enjoyable read, but to be honest it’s extremely unlikely that it will win the Booker gong and I would fully understand if it didn’t even make the short list. Something to read on a plane trip, just don’t laugh out loud, or squirm in your seat, too much!

Tony Messenger - 2011 Long List - Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman

In 1993 we had Roddy Doyle winning the Booker with “Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha”, as told through the eyes of a 10 year old, and in 2003 we had D.B.C. Pierre’s “Vernon God Little” told by the 15 year old Vernon, last year Emma Donoghue brought us Jack a 5 year old who has spent his whole life in one room. This year we have Harri an 11 year old Ghanaian, recently arrived in Britain and living in a Council high rise. According to “The Independent” this debut novel “was the subject of a 12-publisher, six-figure bidding war.”

Whereas Roddy Doyle dealt with deteriorating home relationships and Irish struggles and Vernon told his story of being wrongly accused of a Texan shooting and Jack spoke of his wonder for all things bigger than his room, “Pigeon English” draws the innocence of youth together with the harsh reality of gang violence, alienation in a new country whilst wanting to be accepted, single parenting not by choice but by necessity and the simple joys of being young:

The best bit is running in the rain. If you point your face up to the sky at the same time as running, it nearly feels like you’re flying. You can close your eyes or you can keep them open, it’s up to you. I like both. You can open your mouth if you want. The rain just tastes like water from the tap except it’s quite warm. Sometimes it tastes like metal.

At the start of the novel he witnesses the stabbing death of one of his school acquaintances and teams up with one of his school friends to solve the crime, with toy binoculars:

I won a binoculars with my raffle ticket. Asweh, it was a dope-fine piece of luck. They’re army colour. They actually work even if they’re just plastic. I looked at the whole world though them.

Sellotape:

Sellotape can do lots of different detective jobs. You can catch fingerprints in it or hairs. You can use it to make traps. You can stick your notes Down so they don’t blow away. You can even catch the criminals themselves if you have enough, like if you made it into a spiderweb. Only it would take all the Sellotape in the world to hold a fully grown person.

And a raft of cunning all gleaned from one of his friends who watches all the CSI tv shows.

The standard Booker themes of growing up in an alien world, class struggle, innocence and a deteriorating “Empire” are all to the fore here delivered in a powerful 11 year old voice. Unlike Doyle and Pierre’s earlier winners, even though delivered by a youthful voice, it stands apart by depicting the futility of gang violence whilst touching on a raft of current political and local issues. A timely release given Britain’s recent gang issues and that alone could be enough to sway the judge’s minds. A warning for those who weren’t fans of “Vernon God Little” you may also find this infuriating.

As this is the first of the 2011 longlist I have read, it is hard to judge its claims on the prize itself, but personally I believe it is a certainty to make the shortlist and as I make my way through the remaining 12 novels it will become clearer as to its worthiness of the major gong. Thoroughly enjoyable and a book that lingers with you, what more could you want?