Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Pigeon English

The key success to this book is the loveable qualities of the main protanogist, Harrison. Yes, he may be a very young 11 year year old but he is undeniably gorgeous in his niave perception of the world. The whole undercurrent of the novel is one of danger in total contrast to his childlike wonder at the new culture he is experiencing. But this fear of danger, spiked by a sense of lawlessness amongst the young people of the book, a sense that life does not hold much value, because of their existence in an environment where it it taken so freely, is totally counterbalanced by the humour in which Hari views the life around him. I laughed out loud at many occasions whilst constantly wishing he had remained in the relative safety of Ghana and the simple world he had come from. This for me only heightened the poignancy of the book as his mother was searching for a better future for her family. The absolute characterisations of right and wrong without redemption, particularly in X-fire and Killa, could be perceived as negative but for me all seem to be contiguous with a child's perception on life, and whilst some might feel that this novel could go more to challenge some of the very difficult social problems affecting young people in disadvantaged areas and also help develop some understanding around their plight, I felt that it effectively demonstrated from a childs horizon his view of his life in a totally new environment. I also loved the much critisced characterisation of the pigeon - a figure in its banality and repugnancy seemed absolutely correct as a spiritual guardian angel for a child who's awe for the everyday things often for granted was beautiful. This book is funny, horrific and thought provoking in equal measures. I absolutely recommend.

ガーナからの移民が経験する新世界での生活を、劣等感に妨げられることなく素直に書き表した、移民ではない作家の洞察力に敬意を表する。日本の私小説作家たちは見習うべきかも。

Harri's pigeon. What does it come to do for him? It comes to witness. Right to the end. Interconnectedness.Every living thing is connected to every living thing in a web of evolving, shifting systems - living systems. This is our new quantum physics understanding of the universe. We are all part of one consciousness trying to make cross referencing sense of itself. If we start to become aware that we are witnesses in this state of intricate interconnectedness in which everything is connected to everything, we may well start to experience strange feelings. A kind of eco-love. Even epiphanies. Campbell's policeman could not let go of the suicide jumper he had grabbed even as he was being pulled over the edge by the man's own weight when that man jumped. He could not let go because he realised that if he did let this stranger drop to his certain death, he would die too. In that moment, he got it. The penny dropped, and he states he had never felt more alive; perhaps his consciousness had expanded explosively in that moment. These small explosions of compassion are Hari's special sight. He has the gift of sight. He notices, he feels them. The connections. The little realisations, the small observations of his connectedness keep coming through the novel. They spark off from him erratically, unpredictably. They flash out from his train of consciousness that we are witnessing when we read this book. They get weaved in with everything else. He leaks compassion. He is connected up, wired into the web of life. He knows he is connected to the dead boy from the start. We witness his connectedness to everything - his physical and mental anguish at being coerced into artificial disconnections from life, the severing of connections he is profoundly aware of - as in the Mr Frimpole bumping incident. He must put up his hood, become invisible, cease to exist, disappear, hide, don't look - become blind. Or he can't face it, can't bear to witness to what he is doing. Hitler never visited a concentration camp. This man that banned fox hunting, that was a vegetarian, that loved animals with profound kindness could not really look at the human face of what he was doing. Evil is said to be the result of detachment from, or denial of our connectedness into the web of (Jung's notion of a) collective consciousness. We cannot look right into the eyes of our fellow living things when we lash out at them. I did not kill the animal on my table or look into its eyes when it died in agony and terror; I might not want to chew on its dead flesh. Harri is so much aware of his connections, but he is just too young to protect them, and let them grow. He is overwhelmed by one who fears the witnessing and wants to hide, from what he has done. But the pigeon is there, he witnesses, connects. He is compassionate - just as Harri has been to so many things so far, and to the pigeon too. The web of consciousness carries on and physical death, the pigeon promises Harri will not severe his connection to it.

Mittelmäßig

I bought this book primarily because I was worried it might be too close to the plot of the book I am currently working on - phew! It took me a few chapters to truly get inside Harri's head so that I could read with his voice (if that makes sense) but, for me, the novel just got better and better. It might be because I read it in the week of the riots, but the issues it raises have stayed with me since. Harri's language feels authentic - the mix of a naive eleven-year-old arriving from Ghana, quoting things he has been told as fact (the baby trees are in cages to stop you from stealing them) and his indiscriminate joy and enthusiasm for everything from superheroes to his little sister learning to say his name to the best guns was both contagious and, at the same time, as disturbing as the split second when a game spills over into violence.If I am allowed one complaint, the pigeon's narratives didn't work for me. The pigeon himself is necessary as he makes the final scene (I think we all know it's coming) slightly more palatable.Stephen Kelman - Bagsy I get to use Elbow's, The Birds as the soundtrack to my film, not you - that's a fact. Also, the artwork is stunning - what a shame it is being repackaged in 2012!