The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin

I love reading new African fiction. Everyone obsesses over Chimamanda Adichie, (who I think is a great writer and brought home the reality of the Biafra Civil War in Nigeria); however, I think there are a lot more writers of Adichie's calibre who do not get the same exposure. Lola Shoneyin is definitely one. Her storytelling and her delicate prose really made me feel sorry for Baba Segi; the polygamist at the heart of this tale.

Shoneyin is clearly writing from an internal cultural point of view; coming from a Muslim background I have no strong views on polygamy. I was, however quite interested to learn that in the part of Nigeria (Ibadan) which Shoneyin sets this tale, that polygamy is practised across different religious backgrounds - Christian and Muslim. To be honest, even though the book is set within the context of a polygamous marriage, you become far more involved with the characters of each of the wives and the fleeting minor characters who each influence the combined destinies of the four wives.

The book picks up with the tale of the fourth and last wife to be added to Baba Segi's harem: Bolanle. She differs from the other three wives in that she is a university graduate; whose mother had high hopes for her daughter to lead an ambitious and career driven life. Her daughter disappoints her greatly by opting to marry a man who though wealthy and established as prominent member of his community; Bolanle's mother refuses to accept her daughter's choice of husband.  We do not know what troubles Bolanle, why it is that she would so readily accept the proposal of an uncouth and vulgar man; (Baba Segi always has to relieve himself at moments of stress); but as we read on we learn why it is that "Our paths crossed for a purpose, but we were never meant to be together."

Bolanle's arrival in the already tense and crowded household of Baba Segi (so called as his first daughter is named Segi) rattles the other three wives immensely. The first wife Iya Segi and the third wife Iya Femi set out to destroy Bolanle's precarious position within the house.  They keep their children away from her and bat away her offers to tutor their children.  The second wife Iya Tope distrusts both the first and third wife and takes kindly to Bolanle. They all scorn her barreness after two years of marriage, and Baba Segi, impatient with his fourth wife's apparent stubborness to bear him more children forces his hand to seek fertility treatment.  It is this decision that ultimately is the undoing of Baba Segi's household.  The truths which unravel from this decision change each of their lives forever. What is also interesting to note here, is how a very simple truth is laid bare before the key protagonists; Shoneyin handles this so well and I have to commend her ingenuity for revealing the secret in the way that she does.

Shoneyin writes about this ficitional account of a polygamous marriage in such a way that as a reader, you don't really feel that strongly about it.  Whatever your views are about polygamy, this book balances it with other themes such modernity vs tradition, jealously, aspirations etc. It would be wrong to read this book and to start campaigning against polygamy. This is a ficitional book, and all it does it tell a tale of self-preservation. Far from presenting the marriages as marriages under force and duress, each of the wives freely enter the polygamous arrangement. For them; far from subjugating them; their marriages free them. The wives whose lives unravel so very quickly in this book are just human: motivated by greed, self-preservation and status. As Bolanle says at the very end of the book: "I will remember them as inmates, because what really separates us is that I have rejoined my life's path; they are going nowhere."

A very strong recommendation.

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French

A tiny bit rubbish, unfortunately. Perhaps that is too harsh a criticism. This book just wasn't for me. At times Dawn French threw in a few expletives, the horrible Dora calls her mum Mo a wanker a fair few times. But the whole thing just seemed a bit too "middle-Englandish." I had great expectations for this book and I wanted to read something a bit less taxing to complement the rather fast and furious pace of Imran Khan's excellently taxing "Pakistan: A Personal History." But I was really disappointed. Perhaps I have grown out of Dawn French's humour, which at one time I found really REALLY funny. This, her first novel just bored me. It was an effort to finish and I even skipped a few pages here and there as I couldn't really understand the antagonism shown towards Mo by her daughter: Dora. The other characters Mo's somewhat troubled son and her completely pointless husband just BORED me.

I didn't take anything away from this book, I was just bored. The characters are very one-dimensional, and I am surprised that Dawn French who is normally so good at teasing out subtleties, handled these characters in quite a clumsy and lazy way. There isn't that much depth to any of them, and rather than feel any sympathy for them, you just want them all to drown at sea.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Funnily enough I did not start reading this because of the film, I had made it a mission to complete all of le Carre's books, and I actually started with The Honourable Schoolboy.

TTSS is a reader's book, its not a book for someone who only flirts with the words on the pages, you have to pay attention. You snooze, you lose type of reading. It is a fab read. Le Carre's sense of place, time and context are always strong. The sense of location in this book is amazing, the subtle enmity between the us and them contextualisation is what espionage thriller writing is all about.

I fell in love with George Smiley, a quiet unassuming type of hero who somehow personifies all that is good and noble about being british. He is assigned a task, gets on with it, delivers the result and totters off again. Brilliant sharp mind and his ability to deduce the unknown from the known is what eventually reveals the identity of the mole at the Centre.

Great book.

Bookshop porn

Even though I do think downloads and the advent of Kindles and other e-book readers has and will continue to inspire more people to read, I still love a good bookshop. One of my favourites in London (because it is so close to my place of work and my old uni), is Waterstones on Gower Street. I have moments of bookshop porn. Like making love, I will refuse to cum out (ha ha see what I did there?) until I have quite literally satisfied my browsing (foreplay), 3 for 2s (going down and returning the favour), indulging curiousity with a book outside my usual subject area (new position) and finally THE PURCHASE or the HOME RUN, THE ORGASM the thing that MAKES YOUR EYES ROLL TO THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD.

I had a bit of a shitty morning. Nothing wrong intrinsically, still healthy, hair still has a nice gloss to it, bank balance in the black, but one of those uninspired rather blah mornings, which was only further shittified by stupid people engaging their brains before sending emails. One of those mornings. I felt the need to be a bit reckless ... I didn't want to spend a packet in Whistles or Jigsaw or Aubin & Wills. I needed books. The problem with downloading is that you don't quite get ladywood when browsing Amazon or iTunes store for iBooks. It's just not the same. Stick me in a bookshop however, and "HELLO SANTA!"

I went in empty and returned with the following:

Imran Khan: Pakistan, A Personal History
Simon Heffer: Strictly English
Miguel Syjuco: Illustrado
Armistead Maupin: MaryAnn in Autumn (long awaited sequel to Tales of the City!!)
Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Emperor of Maladies (winner of 2011 Pulitzer for non-fiction)
Tom Gjelten: Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba
Lyndall Gordon: Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family Feuds
Andrew-Graham Dixon: Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane

If I look a bit flushed the next time you see me you will know why  ; )

Making love to a book is great - no STDs, pregnancy or mind-games. The only thing to establish is "your place or mine?"

Lynch's Road by D.D. Armstrong

I met the author of this book at the official launch of Brenton Brown by Alex Wheatle. I was bowled over by D.D's passion for writing and he sent me an extract of the book. A friend of mine, a West Londoner had the book, it seems it has a cult underground following for anyone living in a "W.XX" postcode. Being an East Londoner, I know how West London thinks we are naff, so I was hoping D.D's book would give me a bit more insight into "West".

D.D's story-telling is extremely clever, witty, pacey and most of all believeable. I believed in every single one of the characters; from the major to the minor ones. Without giving too much away, the book is an excellent example of a story within a story. The premise of the book is that a drug dealer's story is distributed amongst a group of characters in West London. His story has a profound and lasting effect on each of them. This is where D.D's skill as a writer really shines through. It would be quite easy to portray the effect of a drug dealer's tale on various characters as one-dimensional: from pusher to punter. But where this book excels is in the perpetual motion of cause and effect.

The book presents us with stark realities of London life, from rich to poor, white to non-white, social class to underclass. It's not presented in a preachy or patronising self-indulgent manner either. D.D has been balanced in taking archetypal representatives from each background and stripping away the mechanical stratifications and laying them bare, so that Gilyan's tale can be imprinted on them. 

Gilyan's tale interestingly is called The Journey of a Slave, he is a slave to his trade: dealing, shottin', juggling. He is a slave to the super-imposed restrictions that wider society and culture jealously forces upon him. But he is resisting, his journey of self-realisation in turn awakens self-realisation for the characters who read his story. His tale could be interpreted as the harbinger of doom or salvation for some.

I have been quite careful not to give any spoilers away as Lynch's Road does not have the 'bank rolling' of a major publishing house behind it so that it can afford a few spoilers; it is published by a small PULP house called SmashnGrab Books. I would strongly recommend you all to read this,  it's brave, honest and best of all has a sense of place and location that Londoners will recognise and love. 

I found the story of Jade (a single mother) who also happens to read The Journey of a Slave particularly important, and I am glad that D.D spoke from the perspective of a young single mother. As group in society, the label "single mother" just lends itself to stigma and approbation. What Jade takes from Gilyan's tale is fundamental; I think to her maturity and her outlook. Again, no spoilers, so you will have to read for yourself. I only mention this, because is is argued that young male writers cannot possible relate to the existence of young women, especially young women who are in a disadvantaged position. D.D clearly knows his readership, he knows that young women, mothers or not will be inspired to read his book, and the story of Gilyan may have a particular resonance for some of them. 

What I like best is that this book is authentic, sometimes you come across a book in which an author desperately tries to authenticise something which they have never actually experienced for themselves. Like I am not going to try and write about fly-fishing, a) because I couldn't give a fuck about fly-fishing and b) I couldn't give a fuck about fly-fishing. But D.D's tale reeks of authenticity, when he tells us through Gilyan's eyes the manoeuvres he has to make to keep the feds' off his back, deal with lousy punters, etc it is believeable.

For more info on the author: D.D Armstrong and where to buy a copy of Lynch's Road see here:

SmashandGrab Books

Favourite childhood books

There are some books which when we come across as adults immediately take us back to our miniature selves. I was talking to a friend of mine earlier and he told me that he didn't have any favourite books from when he was a kid. He claims he was brought up on 1970s New York movies and Scarface, which I highly doubt as he is about as gangster as my Lolita the Bunny hot water bottle cover. 

Everyone who was encouraged to read as a youngster surely has a list of favourite books from their childhood. I can reel mine off without even thinking, and so without further ado; a list of my favourite books below with a memorable line or episode; and why the book was special to me. 


First up is the series of book written by Beverly Cleary about a character called Ramona Quimby. I adored these books when I was wee, as I thought I was Ramona. Imaginative, curious, unwitting trouble maker; a girl who found it difficult to make herself understood to her parents and her older sister "Beezus." 


One of my favourite episodes from Ramona's quaint childhood was the wedding between her Aunt Bea and her best friend Howie's Uncle Hobart from the book : "Ramona Forever." This book marks a definite change in Ramona's relationships with her parents, his sister and her BFF: Howie. It's a book which underlines how "change" can affect an 8-year old girl, albeit one with an over-active imagination and very big heart. 


Ramona Forever


Second up is a series of books which probably foretold my interest in books which are darkly comical. The series "Arabel and her Raven" entertained me for so many hours. I owe a lot to Joan Aiken's very dry style of writing. Even for young readers, Aiken's prose is hilarious and very very "close to the bone." The series is about a young girl who adopts a raven called Mortimer as her pet. All manner of comic shenanigans arise from the odd pairing who are inseparable. Quentin Blake provided the illustrations for this fabulous series which further adds to my affection for this series. Aside from Mortimer, who as a raven is quite sage like, not unlike Yoda from Star Wars; Mr Jones (Arabel's dad) was probably my favourite character from the books. In the first book: "Arabel and her raven", Mr Jones comes across an injured Mortimer on the road. He believes that he is fated to save the raven's life as his horoscope from the Taxi Driver's Herald declares that "due to your skill, a life will be saved today."


Arabel and her raven


Roald Dahl's books gave me so much joy when I was a young reader, that even now I still find it hard to pick out one stand alone favourite from his arc. However, the book that gave me the most laughs is undoubtedly "The Twits." The story of the two most horrible characters ever written about in children's literature still raise a laugh. Dahl allegedly gave Mr Twit a disgusting beard and was particularly graphic about his beard because he hated beards! The Twits should be given to all couples considering marriage, beware; "this may happen to you!" The Glass Eye chapter still makes me laugh until I can no longer breathe. Mr and Mrs Twit's constant pranks and terrorising of the animals eventually give way to their demise, this is is a gem of a book.

The Twits

Dahl knew that what children want in literature is the opposite of what they want in life."

A fabulous piece on the relativism of James and the Giant Peach... and was Roald Dahl an absolute sod?

Roald Dahl

A Dance with Dragons: Fait Accompli & this post includes spoilers so if you are gonna cry about it - dont read.

To be honest, when I first picked up my HARD copy HARDBACK from Waterstones in Gower Street, I skipped back to my office, quite trick to do considering I'm 5 ft and this book weighs more than I do. Regardless, I started to read with vigour, vigour soon turned into confusion into down right despondancy.  It all started so well, the early chapters were strong, the characters had depth, but now with hindsight I realise it was because the earlier chapters centred on familiar Tyrion, Dany and Jon Stark.  GRRM updated us on their fates: Jon was pretty much Stannis Baratheon's bitch, Dany stuck in hot, sweaty and dusty Meereen with a fragile population and under threat of attack by the Sons of the Harpy, Tyrion was literally out at sea. But this was fine, this was comfortable and familiar. THEN, holy mother of all that is sacred, GRRM had Westerosi characters and characters from Essos descend upon us in their droves. The genealogy at the back provided scant help. Why? Because its almost as long as a chapter !

I really think this book should have been split into two volumes like A Storm of Swords. Unless the characters were Westerosi, the rest lacked the same substantial depth and "readability" as the Westerosi characters. Some of the chapters did not add to the storytelling. Dany's chapters meandered, we learn she boffs Daario before marrying Hizdahr and flies off on her son Drogon. What else did she achieve really? The female characters did not achieve much in fact.  It's a shame as GRRM's two strongest female characters feature heavily in this book - Arya probably not as much as she should have done, but Dany has a large proportion of the book dedicated to her rule. Its encouraging to see her emerge as a very wise and just queen, BUT; like a school girl she dreams of Daario in between her legs as mush as she does about the fate of her dragons or her subjects. The Red Lady Melisandre as King Stannis's svengali is a clumsy attempt I think at readdressing the sexist balance. Apart from the few and far between prominent female characters, this book is a pissing context between the male dominated Westerosi families: Starks, Freys, Karstarks, Boltons. The earlier volumes when they featured female characters helped to temper some of the "my cock is bigger than your's" prose, but in this volume, they were sorely missed.

A charge of racism parading as exoticism is levelled at GRRM in this book. Race and identity, gender and identity are characteristically not dealt with sensitively in fantasy writing. However, as a genre, it is one that fosters exoticism as a way of distinguishing "the other." En masse, I don't see fantasy writing moving away from the canonical anglo-saxon norm. So to be fair, why should we expect GRRM to be any different? However the constant bombardment of whores, bed slaves, the C-word, the predilections of the Essosians and Southern Islanders implying the fact that they are DIFFERENT to the Westerosi is clumsy on the part of GRRM. Not what I would have expected from a writer so skilled at plot intricacies. His characterisations have let him down in this volume.

I didn't enjoy this as much as I had enjoyed the earlier volumes, it was a chore to get through. It could have worked as a split volume a lot better, a lot of loose ends to be tied up and an unenviable task lies ahead for GRRM.

Here are two contrasting reviews to further inform your judgement:

Channelling words

Hiopinion

Read this by all means, however be prepared for a long ride and a sore bum.

Jason Burke on Islamic Militancy

Just because he's an amazing knowledgeable journalist:

Jason Burke interview

I read Giles Keppel at SOAS so I remember the book well. I haven't read the revised edition which came out post 9-11.

Ruthven is incredible on the Muslim Brotherhood, and again read another one of his books at SOAS. I have not read A Fury for God, but will get round to it.

Heghammer's Jihad in Saudi Arabia is exactly the type of measured commentary and analysis we should all read to understand islamic militancy. I wonder if he will explore Jihadists in Pakistan or other areas. Would be interesting to see the parallels and contrasts.

I read The Secret Agent after I had read A Heart of Darkness by J Conrad. I do agree with Jason Burke that the book reveals how the psyche of ideologies work. Extremists/militants/whateverists aren't very often groups of individuals who are well organised or slick in their execution of tasks or capabilites. All too often, they are groups of amateurs who are motivated by a passion for a cause.

Philip Roth is not going to walk into a bookstore and see his work in the 'Jewish Male' section.

I think the above quote from the Performance Poet and bestselling author: Sapphire is so true.

The amount of times I walk into a bookshop and roll my eyes at all the "categories" that exist; which actually don't help me as a book reader. Why should I have to look for a book by Alex Wheatle or Courttia Newland in the "black fiction" area. What the hell is "black fiction?"

These "labels" are not helpful and as my friend Helen Ayinde says: extremely divisive. I think it's acceptable to have areas determined by subject but to determine bookstore shelves along sexual orientation or ethnic categories is just pointless. I don't read books because I am a British Asian of Indo-Bangladeshi heritage, nor do I read books because my faith is Islamic. I read because I fucking love books! I don't want to be "steered" to an area of books in a book shop where the authors may have the same skin colour or tone or religious beliefs as me. I want to read about the European Enlightenment, about Henrietta Lacks (awesome book by the way by Rebecca Skloot "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), and about Caitlin Moran telling me "How to be a Woman." I don't want to necessarily read Roy's "The God of Small Things" or Jhumpha Lahiri's "The Namesake," (both absolute amazing books); I just want to have all my choices available to me when I walk into a book shop.

That is what I find most offensive about book shop categorisations: if you are telling me that all the black authors or all the LGBT or vertically-challenged or diet-phobic fiction is only available to me in the dark nether regions of the shop, what you are actually doing is judging me for my choice of reading. I am being judged because I want to read about a young illiterate black girl who is horrifically abused (Push by Sapphire) or a young American-Bengali boy trying to fit into american culture (The Namesake by Jhumpha Lahiri). I won't be judged if I want to read Stephen King or Lee Childs or James Patterson.

I have to say that as an Amazon downloader (independent bookshops - please don't hate me), they too are guilty of categorising fiction by ethnic or sexual orientation. I am not sure who these categorisations actually help or benefit. I don't have any white friends who announce "I am going to buy some black fiction today," and promptly march to the nearest Waterstones and demand to be shown to the black fiction section.

Books are all about removing those labels and categories. Books are open sources of information and entertainment. Ghettoising certain books is restrictive and just adds to the PC brigade's armoury of ever-more foolishness.

Sapphire

Forthcoming reviews

I have been meaning to get around to list my forthcoming reviews, however time stands still for no WO-man and I've only just got around to doing this! As Loretta Young once said: "A charming woman is a busy woman."

So below is a list of books which I have either read and yet to post a review or neither read or reviewed:

• Ken Follett's "A Dangerous Fortune"
• Michelle Lovric's "Book of Human Skin"
• Rafik Schiami's "The Dark Side of Love"
• Lola Shoneyin's "The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives" 
• concluding review of GRRM's "A Dance with Dragons"

I could list more books, but these are the ones which have really grabbed my attention this year. I read Shiami's The Dark Side of Love last year and I was bowled over by the sheer scale and story telling of this amazing Syrian author.

I came across Lola Shoneyin's book during a random Amazon search of new fiction and downloaded both sample and book straight away. Her writing is witty and revealing and far from demonising polygamous marriages, her fictional account reveals the deep cultural attachment and positive benefits to polygamous marriages in Nigerian society.

Back to the grind, a short post to detail future reviews !

Will Self reviews Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital by Catherine Hakim

I don't normally refer to other reviews unless I'm a fan of the reviewer or the book which is reviewed. I noticed this review of Catherine Hakim's book by Will Self and if anything, it has made me curious to read Hakim's treatise. Most of the reviews of Hakim's work are on Amazon which has averaged a review score of 2.9 out of 5... so I was curious to read Will Self's take on Hakim's post-feminist arguments.

I have not read Honey Money yet, but interesting its title appeals as "No money, no honey" is one of Poppa Rahman's favourite sayings. Although as a devout Muslim, I am sure he means to use it in a different context to that of prostitutes in Jakarta.

Anyway here is the link to Self's review and you can make your mind up for yourself !

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/19/honey-money-catherine-hakim-review

Gold Dagger Shortlist is revealed !

A distinctly testeroney list. Only one woman is nominated, but glad to see one of my fav reads from this year: AD Miller's Snowdrops is in.

Snowdrops was an excellent, evocative read and I will get round to posting my review of it as soon as I have finished the beast that is A Dance with Dragons !

In the meantime, here's the list of the shortlisted candidates for the Gold Dagger

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/19/gold-dagger-shortlist-revealed?CMP=twt_fd

Boyd Tonkin also reviews Brenton Brown

Well timed review of Brenton Brown by Boyd Tonkin.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/brenton-brown-by-alex-wheatle-2335931.html

Andrew Blackman agrees re Brenton Brown !

A London based author Andrew Blackman, author of "The Holloway Road" http://andrewblackman.wordpress.com/ has also reviewed "Brenton Brown." We both are in agreement regarding the brilliance of this book which closes the circle for Brenton and his "boys" from "East of Acre Lane."

A request to Alex Wheatle to follow up on Dennis and Akeisha from "The Dirty South" please !

Ok done rasta !

“A book between friends” reviews: Brenton Brown, by Alex Wheatle

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Romeo asks Mercutio: “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like a thorn.” This was true for the ill-fated Romeo & Juliet as it is for Brenton Brown and his half-sister Juliet Hylton.

Alex picks up the story of Brenton and Juliet some twenty years since their illicit love affair produced a baby: Brenton’s niece and daughter Breanna. Juliet has married a Cambridge educated financier: Carlton Hylton, and is working in local Lambeth politics. Brenton has set up his own business, and despite the changes in their personal circumstances, the one constant, as in East of Acre Lane and Brixton Rock, is Brixton itself. Alex’s affection for this south London area is unfaltering, in the chapter entitled “Exile”, one of Brenton’s spars: Everton aka Coffin Head declares “Different people may come and go but nutten change inna Brixton.”

I read this book, the final instalment in the story of Brenton Brown with much sadness and nostalgia. The pace of the events which occurs in this book and which affect the characters in immeasurable ways only adds to the beauty and beat of Alex’s highly nuanced understanding of life as a minority in contemporary Britain. The fact that Brenton and Juliet, half-siblings who have never fallen out of love with each other is, for me; not the hook which this book rests upon. For me, the book’s strength lies in its 360 degree paramount unveiling, growth and emergence of its characters. Brenton’s spars: Coffin Head, Floyd, Biscuit all remain tight and have matured into the solid brixtonians they now are in their forties. Even the minor characters such Brenton’s girlfriend Lesley is given a 360 characterisation, which explains the fury she spits at him when she realizes Brenton “can’t deal with his fucking past.” Breanna, the young girl with the insecurity issues and hang ups up about looks, about not knowing who her real father is, the untimely and shocking death of her boyfriend are capture elegantly by Alex and we see her transform from an awkward 18 year old to a woman in her mid twenties, who is more self assured and settled in her skin at the book’s end. Sean, the young lad seeking vengeance for his father’s death at the hands of Brenton twenty years earlier. Alex neatly crafts Sean’s change of heart from avenging his father’s death to a realization that he needs to change. From Breanna’s stinging accusation that he is a “wasteman” to his maturity from working under Brenton to going to college and turning his back on “road life.” All the characters including the long-suffering Carlton are given a platform in this book. They evoke strong emotions ranging from condemnation to affection to pity and grief. The pace moves so fast that the reader is almost not given much time to grieve over the loss of some of the characters, including that of Brenton at the end. As with his previous books, the pace and the emotions that Alex takes you through give you just about enough time to catch your breath and grapple with what’s happened. There’s no time to grieve however, as life moves so fast for these characters as does normal London life outside this book, that as a reader you don’t mind.

What I admire about this book also is the high importance Alex places on the intra-female relationships, between mother and daughter: Juliet and Breanna and best friends: Juliet and Tess. Most of Alex’s books centre on tales of young men and growing up in strife as a young man, his Island Stories saw a shift in focusing on how emigrating to Britain affected a small group of Jamaican women, so it was encouraging to see the intra-female relationships played out in this book. The friendship between Tess and Juliet is witty, powerful and brutally honest. Juliet has no real friends apart from Tess, and I think Tess makes up for the inherent weaknesses in Juliet’s character. Tess makes a point of proclaiming that Juliet’s marriage to Carlton is actually a smokescreen, an attempt by Juliet to assuage her guilt for her feelings for Brenton, the fact that their mother abandoned him to his fate in his early childhood and that her only daughter is a child borne out of incest.

Juliet is perhaps my least favourite character, I found her nefarious in Brixton Rock and her weaknesses jar in Brenton Brown. She feebly attempts to hold Brenton Brown back by claiming that Breanna needs his support in the aftermath of her boyfriend’s death. She gives in to Carlton at various times during the book and wastes no time in re-consummating the relationship with Brenton when she visits him in Miami. Perhaps, she was the real bug bear in Brenton’s life all these years and not the dysfunctional relationship he had with his mother or his tough upbringing in the children’s home. Perhaps, a culmination of all three, which finally convince Brenton to make a move abroad and start afresh.

The protagonist: Brenton’s demise comes as sudden as his decision to move abroad in an attempt to put some distance between him and Juliet. The “Steppin’ Volcano” as he was formerly known has been tempered with wisdom and maturity, and this is seen in his frank conversation with Sean in the chapter “Shadow of the past.” He explains what happened that terrible night when he “had got lucky,” and Terry Flynn, Brenton’s nemesis died under a tube train. Brenton’s death comes as a shock, a shock to Juliet, a shock to his spars and a shock to Carlton, who unwittingly causes his death. Brenton has grown, but in many ways the demons of his past refuse to let him grow more than he can. His relationship with Juliet, other women and his past all curtail and severely impede his ability to form stable committed relationships. It is only Sharon, the voice of reason from “East of Acre Lane” and Floyd’s wife who makes the insightful assertion that both Juliet and Brenton had a choice and that they arrogantly assumed that they “could break all the rules.” The issue of Genetic Sexual Attraction, which Alex first explored in Brixton Rock, is undoubtedly controversial. One could read the story of Brenton and his Juliet in much the same vein as Romeo and his, or one could read it as a textbook case of GSA. Despite the relationship with Juliet and the intense love affair, which picks up nearly twenty years since their first affair, it is Brenton’s humanity, which one is drawn to. As a young child beaten in a children’s home, to fearlessly making his way through life, a tense relationship with the mother who abandoned him to his early days as a Brixton bad-man, the character of Brenton Brown has now been laid to rest. At last, and in peace.

Farzana Rahman

July 2011.

A Dance of Dragons - mid book review

I am walking into lamposts, missing my tube stop, stubbing my toes on doors because of the eponymous Mr Martin or "GRRM" as he is fondly known to us ASOIFers.

A Dance of Dragon picks up the stories of Jon Snow, Danerys Targaryen (Stormborn) and Tyrion Lannister in a parallel to A Feast of Crows. These three are easily the most interesting and captivating characters and were sorely missed in a Feast of Crows. Having managed to get about a quarter of the way through now, the chapters have not disappointed. Tyrion is hitching a ride with Illyrio - but is he to be trusted? Dany - mother to three restless dragons, one of which: Drogon has not been seen since his brothers were taken to the "pit," and Jon Snow now at the Wall and treading a fine balance between keeping Stannis Baratheon appeased and resolving to capture the Iron Throne.

GRRM is more languid in his prose in this book, his attention to detail is unfaltering. His narrative is unyielding and graphic, but given that this is fantasy writing at it's best, the reader needs the incessant pummelling of detail and description to accurately capture the world of Westeros.

It will be interesting to see how the fates of the other Stark children fare compared to the Bastard Jon Snow. Bran and Meera are fending for themselves and we are yet to come across Sansa and Arya. Tyrion is at a disadvantage so far as he is reliant on the goodwill of Illyrio and as fans of Tyrion know, he is not comfortable with being reliant on others.

Dany has grown into her role as Queen and is making astute decisions in her precarious Meereenese location with attacks from the Sons of the Harpy growing ever more bolder.

Another review to follow. Watch this space.

Noviolet Bulawayo wins Caine Prize for "Hitting Budapest"

Read here for the full story from Guardianbooks: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/12/noviolet-bulawayo-caine-prize?CMP=twt_gu