Pigeon English, Stephen Kelman

How exciting to discover, when I checked the 2011 Booker Shortlist, that I had actually read one of the shortlist. Not so far behind, after all! I'd found "Pigeon English" in my local bookstore, and immediately fallen in love.


Things I loved about "Pigeon English" before I even really started reading:


- The cover art. 
The artwork is gorgeous, combining bird silhouettes with a boy's in a way that mimics one of those pysch pictures where you don't know if it's a duck or a rabbit. This really captured the sense of the book, too. While there were 'bad; characters, it was hard to shake the feeling that once they were just like the hero, Harrison. He's a young boy living in the London projects, and his main sources of inspiration are the boys around him, gangsters all.


- The list on the back. 
"
Wars. Kids vs Teachers, Northwell Manor High vs Leabridge High, Dell Farm Crew vs Lewsey Hill Crew, Emos vs Sunshine, Turkey vs Russia, Arsenal vs Chelsea, Black vs White, Police vs Kids, God vs Allah, Chicken Joe’s vs KFC, Cats vs Dogs, Aliens vs Predators." 

The list was so bittersweet. The concept of wars in kid-language is so heartwrenching. Some of these wars are serious wars that strike fear into the heart of adults (God vs Allah). Some are bitingly witty, and sum up the humour of the novel (Emos vs Sunshine). And others, like Chicken Joe's vs KFC, just underline how childish the protaganist is. At the heart of everything, he is a young boy in a cruel, fast paced world. As the reader, you are just hoping against hope that his reputation as the second fastest runner in Year 7 will help him to outrun any danger.

- The voice of Harry. 
Harry is so unmistakably a child. Some of the adventures we follow him through are those of simple adolescence- trying to fit in with the cool crowd, his first girlfriend. Others are sadly adult, such as living through the aftermath of a murder in his community. And yet even the way he deals with this grief (to create a detective duo bent on finding the killer) is so juvenile, it made me ache. "Pigeon English" has been compared to the fabulous "Room", and I can see why. It shares the same gift of telling a story wholeheartdely through the eyes of a child, and both of those stories are sadly not the tale of childhood we would wish for our heroes. 

For me, "Pigeon English" is not just the tale of a childhood though, but of life robbing us of our innocence. The characters of the novel could all have been like Harry once, but life kept beating down on them until they cracked. Harry hasn't cracked yet, but you get the feeling it's only a matter of time before the world wins. A beautiful and often funny novel, but with a nagging twinge of sadness at the world we are creating for our children.