The London Pigeon Wars (Hardcover)

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Review
Take a group of people, shake them up, pair them off. Watch them pass away their youth, dreaming big and getting by. Before you know it, the years have found them hitting 30 and going nowhere fast. In the beginning there was Tom. Then there was Murray and later Karen. Tom and Karen got together and Murray slipped in and out of their lives and the widening circle of friends. He leads them into anarchic escapades, having 'Murray fun'. But who is Murray? And where has he been for the last ten years? That's what all his old friends want to know as he makes a typically dramatic reappearance at the launch of Freya's hat shop. Before long he is working his unique charm, using his chameleon-like charisma to flatter and engage. The years have not been kind to the group - Tom and Karen have split; Karen has 'grown up' with a fast-track job that has left Tom behind. Tariq's ailing IT business has led him to remortgage the family home. Ami's flawless beauty makes everyone thinks she's someone famous - but not as herself. Murray reappears like a stone thrown into a pool, and soon they find their lives changing, as his subtle manipulations begin to take effect. And it's not just the humans who feel the difference - even the pigeons are wising up to a new awareness and with consciousness comes war. The War of the Pigeons, who now observe the human dramas unfolding below them, in the heaving metropolis that is London. And occasionally participate in them themselves. When your life's going nowhere rapidly, what else can you do, but rob a bank? As one pigeon observes, 'everybirdy wants to follow' - but where will Murray lead them? Appearances are deceptive and Murray may not be all he seems to be. Patrick Neate won the 2001 Whitbread Prize with Twelve Bar Blues, and his clever urbanity perfectly captures the cornucopian confusion of modern life. Full of devastating observations on our many-faceted, multicultural society, this perceptive reflection of our society is another comic triumph. (Kirkus UK)

Waugh's Vile Bodies is invaded by Hitchcock's The Birds: a bizarre fantasy about the high-jinks of a group of Bright Young Things moving through a fashionable London demimonde. "The thing about Murray," we're told, "is, he's like, a sprite or a goblin . . . . He's a social terrorist." What's so special about him? Well, he hasn't a last name, for one thing, and nobody is quite sure what race he is, either. Plus, he eats nothing but chicken. He has lived in an ashram in India, worked as a strip-club bouncer in Bangkok, smuggled drugs across the border (don't ask how), and peeled potatoes in restaurants across the globe. He ended up for a while in a third-rate university in London, where he met Tom Dare at Mass one Sunday. Tom's girlfriend, Karen, works for the Mayor's office, and she eventually goes to bed with Murray. So, too, does Emma, the wife of Murray's friend Tariq Khan. But Murray is not just a philanderer. When Tariq's computer-software firm starts to tank in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, Murray organizes a scheme to raise enough money to keep Emma and Tariq from losing their home. It's not exactly legal, and it goes very badly out of control in the end, but it shows where his heart is. The bond between Murray and his friends becomes even stronger, in fact, when the city is struck with a strange and deadly phenomenon: Flocks of killer pigeons attacking people on the streets. First, Murray's friend Freya has her ear bitten, then another friend has part of his nose pecked off. Soon the entire city is in a panic and the authorities are warning people to stay indoors. What's going on? Would it surprise you to learn that, somehow, Murray is involved? Amusing, and just credible enough to be read straight, but Neate's (Twelve Bar Blues, 2002, etc.) third novel is too far-fetched to be swallowed whole. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
A gang of London twentysomethings are facing up to the disappointments of adulthood. The hat maker can't sell her hats, the dot.com whizz kid's gone bust, the TV personality's continually stopped in the street, mistaken for someone else. As for the poet? It's all too embarrassing. Meanwhile, London's pigeons are at war. They're not sure what they're fighting about. It could be politics or personality or territory or religion. Whatever. But it's definitely got something to do with the appearance of a bloke called Murray...THE LONDON PIGEON WARS is a hilarious satire-cum-thriller about ambition and failure, materialism and morality, mirrors as windows - and pigeons with a taste for blood.

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11 Reviews 5 star:  (7) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.4 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A bizarre masterpiece, 7 May 2003 By A Customer For the many devoted fans of Twelve Bar Blues (myself included), Patrick Neate’s new novel is likely to be something of a shock. Where Twelve Bar Blues was a broad-brushed mural, The London Pigeon Wars is an esoteric miniature with the devil in the detail; where Twelve Bar Blues gave broad themes a personal twist, The London Pigeon Wars highlights apparently petty concerns as the height of modern angst; and where Twelve Bar Blues was a triumph of careful plotting, The London Pigeon Wars is less stream than flood of consciousness. From the opening chapter (narrated by a pigeon, in ‘pigeon’), this takes quite some getting used to. But hang in there because it is worth the ride. Ultimately, what you make of this book will depend on two things. First, you need to decide what you think of Murray, the ephemeral central character who is so indistinct as to barely exist (a description that becomes ever more poignant as the plot unfolds). Do you know someone like him? Do you buy into him? Does he live for you? Does he die for you? Second, you have to trust the author. Is Neate in control of what he’s doing? Or is the book in control of him? It’s often hard to tell. But even that question only leads you back to further fascinating queries of intent. In the end, all my doubts only seemed to lead me to a point where I found the author smiling back at me; a disconcerting but compelling experience. Frankly, I will be unsurprised if this book leaves some readers totally cold. But I will also be unsurprised if in a decade’s time it is heralded as a bizarre masterpiece of our times. Ultimately I tend towards the latter opinion and I urge you to read it if only to make up your own mind. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Dunno what they are, but here they come again...., 15 Jul 2003 By A Customer This is the third fiction offering from feted young(ish) London author Patrick Neate, previous winner of the Whitbread. But readers hoping for more of the same sub-Saharan spiked jollity or jazz-inflected lyricism of his first two novels may be temporarily disappointed. I say temporarily because, while the subject matter (internecine strife between newly-sentient flying rats in the sky above London, linked Escher-like to the lives of a sprinkling of the capital's more unusual suspects down below) is a real departure, the quality of his writing is arguably even more mature here. Neate has always excelled at the juggling act between fine farce and haunting seriousness - but in LPW he displays a writerly ambition that will keep him on many people's must-read lists for generations to come. From the linguistic effrontery of his pidgin / pigeon English to the sharp characterisation, via his obvious distaste for London and many of its cartoonish inhabitants, this is a vivid, biting, hilarious, scary, moving, touching, inventive, puzzling, and ultimately involving read. And how often can you say that? Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic magic, 31 Dec 2003 By  "fionastanley" - See all my reviews This book was passed on to me by a friend. I read quite a lot but had never heard of this guy before. Now I’ve read the book this seems quite amazing since he is a very talented novelist. What I loved about this book is its imagination and intricacy. The pigeons are such a bizarre creation and sometimes quite difficult to follow but always so funny and so clever. That he manages to tie them in so plausibly (if surreally) into the rest of the action is quite amazing. I loved the way the whole story comes together in the last fifty pages. I’m still not entirely sure who Murray really was but I’d certainly like to meet him! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 11 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 2.0 out of 5 stars Hmmmm...blows hot and cold. This is an intriguing book. I loved Twelve Bar Blues and thought that this would be a winner too. It's the story of a group of friends and the story of pigeons going to war (I... Read more Published on 26 Sep 2006 by MrShev 5.0 out of 5 stars Mad but magic I suspect methods allegorical but who cares? This tale of a bunch of brokendown 'twirtysomethings' in the throes of all sorts of crises personal and public is a triumph of... Read more Published on 5 Mar 2005 5.0 out of 5 stars Slightly off the thread Excellent piece of writing to put on your 'need to read' list. A story about pigeon evolution, and a being of many faces and all races called Mishap. Read more Published on 28 Feb 2005 4.0 out of 5 stars As always - Mr Neate Delivers ... There are few words I could use to describe this latest novel from the brilliant, innovative and quirky writer Patrick Neate. Simply - this book is brilliant. Read more Published on 5 Feb 2005 by froggy76 5.0 out of 5 stars "Behavior is driven by fear of farce." Karen Miller, ten years out of college, is working for the city of London Transit Committee when she is assigned to become the "pigeon czar. Read more Published on 20 Aug 2004 by Mary Whipple 5.0 out of 5 stars Dunno what they are, but here they come again... This is the 3rd fiction offering from feted young London author Patrick Neate. However, readers expecting to find more of the same sub-Saharan sardonic jollity or jazzy lyricism... Read more Published on 10 Jul 2003 3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad take on contemporary London This book isn't a bad stab at what it means to be thirtysomething in London today. Disillusion and fatigue with an over-familiar social circle are well portrayed. Read more Published on 4 Jun 2003 by R. A. Langham 4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and page turning take on contemporary London After two books where Neate has gone for far flung themes, he now turns his attention closer to home: this third novel is based around seven friends, all around thirty, living and... Read more Published on 29 April 2003 by R. S. Stanier Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 11 customer reviews...

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