- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (4 May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099289164
- ISBN-13: 978-0099289166
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,155,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A semi-autobiographical first novel about rites of passage in London's Asian community. It follows the lives of a group of boys as they make their way through the minefield of English society. The author won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for his first collection of poems, "Slave Song".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another book I bought because of its Guyana link. The synopsis gives an accurate summary of the story of the novel.
It is beautifully written and would make a great English Lit text itself because it leaves so much open to examination as the narrator himself examines his identity and his knowledge and lack of it of those around him. It is in some ways a simple story and in others shows so many layers of the complexity of our identities, especially focusing on the dilemas of the immigrant, knowing yourself, acceptance of where you are from and where you are now.
The exploration of how this group of 5 school friends from different immigrant backgrounds drawn together by the fact they have the common trait of being 'outsiders' find and struggle (or in some cases appear not to) with their own identities and how that effects their friendships is incredibly well done. I had a strong empathy for all the characters, even though their situations are completely different to mine.
Joseph, the illiterate, abandoned black young man in the story is shown as the one who can actually see aspects of life in the way the educated Indo-Guyanese narrator tries to see in his assessment of English literature texts.
The issue of race is ever present in all the dynamics but in the complexity that really exists, not in the simplistic way it is often viewed. He examines the racial prejudices of his memories in Guyana as well as the UK.
I loved the memories of Berbice and especially New Amsterdam.
For me the ultimate sense of aloneness at the end of the book brought tears to my eyes. In some ways that sense reminded me of 'A Dry White Season' by Andre Brink which was one of the most haunting but brilliant novels I've read.
It is beautifully written and would make a great English Lit text itself because it leaves so much open to examination as the narrator himself examines his identity and his knowledge and lack of it of those around him. It is in some ways a simple story and in others shows so many layers of the complexity of our identities, especially focusing on the dilemas of the immigrant, knowing yourself, acceptance of where you are from and where you are now.
The exploration of how this group of 5 school friends from different immigrant backgrounds drawn together by the fact they have the common trait of being 'outsiders' find and struggle (or in some cases appear not to) with their own identities and how that effects their friendships is incredibly well done. I had a strong empathy for all the characters, even though their situations are completely different to mine.
Joseph, the illiterate, abandoned black young man in the story is shown as the one who can actually see aspects of life in the way the educated Indo-Guyanese narrator tries to see in his assessment of English literature texts.
The issue of race is ever present in all the dynamics but in the complexity that really exists, not in the simplistic way it is often viewed. He examines the racial prejudices of his memories in Guyana as well as the UK.
I loved the memories of Berbice and especially New Amsterdam.
For me the ultimate sense of aloneness at the end of the book brought tears to my eyes. In some ways that sense reminded me of 'A Dry White Season' by Andre Brink which was one of the most haunting but brilliant novels I've read.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Dabydeens writing is excellent. I really enjoyed this book with its flashbacks to life in British Guiana, obviously before Independence was granted in 1966 and his hero's naivity and very simple childhood in the village there..well in absolute poverty there. The contrast to London it becomes a bit more complex as he has been abandoned by his father in London and put in a Welfare Home where remarkable he determines to "make something of himself" a follows the method of academia as opposed to the mercantile/businessman avenue that many from the Indian subcontinent choose at the time. So in that sense there is the difference. The peculiar collection of friends still conform to race and he makes friends at school who are again Indian with the one exception a black boy. The characters were resonably developed one or two dissapeared. He has no white friends and makes no mention of any one white in the book except the two white girls who are clearly there for sexual titilation, they serve no other purpose. I mean he is living in England why no mention of white teachers or white welfare officers? The book, as is usual these day, ends with you thinking "..is this it?..what was your point?" "Will there be a sequel?"
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