- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (7 Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0349114420
- ISBN-13: 978-0349114422
- Product Dimensions: 18 x 12.6 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 816,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'...sings with reality. Adebayo has written an important novel. His fable tells some very real, untold stories' - S. Express '...keeps surprising, never easily giving up its answers or letting the reader settle... In the end you're in another country & with the Gods' - Time Out 'A writer of vibrant originality... ....a book that sings... rhapsodic, exhilarating & poignant. Adebayo is a real find & My Once Upon a Time a magical fairy-tale for our times' - The Telegraph
The Telegraph
'A writer of vibrant originality... ....a book that sings... rhapsodic, exhilarating and poignant.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is the business! I honestly don't think I've read anything quite like this before. You hear so much hype about "cool" new writing and so much of it fails to deliver, so maximum respect, Master Adebayo!
It's a sort of multi-layered futuristic parable, wrapped in private eye clothes. There's a lot going on, so you have to read it with close attention, but it's really absorbing, with this whole (mainly black) world imagined, and done really elegantly and wittily. It's "mean streets", but tender and deep too, with great creative use of language. To use a cricketing term, which I'm sure the author would enjoy, seeing how he devotes a whole chapter to this carnival-style cricket match - this is a thrilling Lara century, with shots all round the wicket!
I've just finished it and I'm still a bit disturbed - it's one of those endings that stick with you: very dark and surreal and clever, but not annoying clever, more disturbing "Seven" or "Angelheart" clever. The hero Boy namechecks a couple of films and I think this book would make a great near-future London one. You can just see it all: Boy, this shady but spiritual Man with No Name figure, making his doomed way around this London that isn't quite as we know it, with this black hostess resort "Ice Cream" and this voodoo God figure The Race Man (brilliant idea!), and all these funny characters.
I must admit I did find it tricky going for a bit in part two when the mystical aspects of Boy's journey become more full-on. I was thinking, no man, give me back the low-life action - what is all this head-hurting stuff exactly? But, of course, you need it to tie up Boy's internal and external quests, and the story carries you through anyway. I'm not sure I've "got it" all completely yet - I want to go back and re-read one or two sections, but that's cool. It's been a long time since any new novel's had me wanting to press "Rewind". Definitely one to spread the word about.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The writer has followed ' Some kind of Black' with a work that alters the Detective genre, lending new eyes and new actions to what seemed a tired genre. It is like and unlike every detective book you've read, and the insight of 'Boy' the protagonist is simply something else. What next- Science fiction ? Stellar work
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's not often that I don't finish a book so it was with reluctance that I didn't finish this. This book, although written by a black man, does not portray black londoners very realistically, in fact, it took a while before I was even sure it was set in London due to some of his colloquialisms which were very 'American'. The plot is totally implausible, and I finally conceded defeat at a point where for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, even after re-reading the preceeding 10 pages....
This book almost read like it had been written by your archetypal, white politician who had never been to London in their life, and had written it based on what they had read about black people living in London/US in newspapers.
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