Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman is another book that was shortlisted for the Booker this year and one I didn't particularly take to. Set in contemporary urban London, it is the story of Harrison Opuku, a 12 year old migrant boy from Ghana who lives in a council housing estate. Harrison is all wide-eyed wonder at a lot of what happens around him and at the same time somewhat aware of the violent neighbourhood he is in, made all the more evident when a teenage boy in his school is murdered. The book deals with the issue of knife crime and teenage violence, and also touches on the general migrant experience.
Why I didn't like the book had a lot to do with the narrative. As the narrator, Harrison failed to win me over. Doing first person child narratives is never an easy task and for Kelman there was also the added burden of it being a migrant child. It just wasn't convincing and most of the time I found it irritating. For one thing I just didn't see how he could be so completely in wonder of certain things and then in-tune and street-smart about others. I also a found this whole thing of seeing adult issues through an innocent childish perspective a bit overdone already, and what could've been fresh is if the perspective came from a less innocent child, like one of "the other" child characters. I found the portrayals of these characters a lot more succesful and convincing. The child-speak meets street-speak was also a test of my patience especially when it's an entire book of that. In Room the child-speak narrative worked beautifully and convincingly; it also would've meant a very different story had it been from another voice and perspective. I'm not sure Pigeon English would have lost out had Harrison not been the narrator.
And then there's the pigeon. I assume it has a symbolic function, perhaps to do with migration but other than that I just didn't see its point. And when it starts to talk... Lord, the less said about it, the better!
There were some nice moments but on the whole Pigeon English has sadly been a disappointment.
Goodreads rating: 1/5 stars
Could appeal to: Those interested in urban contemporary fiction
Read it with: no expectations
Taster quote: "I needed to break a window. I needed a thousand points to catch up."
Published by: Bloomsbury
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