Name: In Our Mad and Furious City
Rating: 3.375 (8 reviews)
ISBN: 9780374175771

Gunaratne

In Our Mad and Furious City

Guy Gunaratne

*WINNER OF THE JHALAK PRIZE, THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE AND THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD* *LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE AND THE GORDON BURN* 'I was gripped... remarkable' Robert Macfarlane, Guardian Books of the Year 'A novel that doesn't flinch, and demands change right now' Ali Smith 'A novel so of this moment that you don't even realize you've waited your whole life for it' Marlon James For Selvon, Ardan and Yusuf, growing up under the towers of Stones Estate, summer means what it does anywhere: football, music and freedom. But now, after the killing of a British soldier, riots are spreading across the city, and nowhere is safe. While the fury swirls around them, Selvon and Ardan remain focused on their own obsessions, girls and grime. Their friend Yusuf is caught up in a different tide, a wave of radicalism surging through his local mosque, threatening to carry his troubled brother, Irfan, with it.

Winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize

Very ambitious and maybe would have been better longer or as separate stories as it’s hard to connect with all the characters. Focusses so much on the personal relationship with politics that it feels like it misses the big picture. 

Luke Pearce

'A riotous hymn to urban life... passionate, compelling' Guardian 'A novel that doesn't flinch, and demands change right now' Ali Smith 'What a voice, what an ear for language' Kit de Waal *Shortlisted for the 2018 Gordon Burn Prize* For Selvon, Ardan and Yusuf, growing up under the towers of Stones Estate, summer means what it does anywhere: football, music, freedom. But now, after the killing of a British soldier, riots are spreading across the city, and nowhere is safe. While the fury swirls around them, Selvon and Ardan remain focused on their own obsessions, girls and grime. Their friend Yusuf is caught up in a different tide, a wave of radicalism surging through his local mosque, threatening to carry his troubled brother, Irfan, with it. Provocative, raw, poetic yet tender, IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY marks the arrival of a major new talent in fiction.

Sonja H

Ich sag es ganz ehrlich: ich weiß nicht wirklich, was ich von diesem Buch halten soll.

Es ist die Geschichte dreier Jungs und zwei ihrer Elternteile, die im Norden Londons leben und mit den Wurzeln ihrer Herkunft konfrontiert werden. Sie finden in dieser Stadt keine wirkliche Zuflucht und keine Normalität, denn der Hass gegenüber „Andersartigkeit“ wächst von Tag zu Tag.

Es fiel mir ausgesprochen schwer, mich für das Schicksal der Figuren zu interessieren, was aber damit zusammenhängt, dass der Slang, der sich durch das gesamte Buch zieht, für mich anstrengend zu lesen war. Viele Begriffe wie z.B. „Grime“ habe ich nicht gekannt und musste sie googeln oder „überlesen“, wenn ich gerade kein Internet zur Verfügung hatte.
Wenn ich das Buch nach einer Pause mitten in einem Kapitel wieder aufgenommen habe, konnte ich nicht erkennen, welcher Figur ich gerade folgte, weil sie alle für mich zu ähnlich klangen (bis auf die Erwachsenen, die in vollständigen Sätzen sprechen).

Andererseits trägt dieser Schreibstil zu einer dichten und eindrücklichen Atmosphäre bei, die ein Bild von Englands Hauptstadt zeichnete, mit dem ich mich bislang nicht auseinander gesetzt hatte.

Vielleicht sollte ich „In Our Mad and Furious City“ zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt noch einmal eine Chance geben.

Amanda Wells

This book was not for me! I had such a hard time getting through it for some reason, even though I recognise that it is written really well, and is quite important. 

But I just had such a hard time relating to these people. Perhaps it's because I feel very removed from the London they represent - although that hasn't been a problem in the past, when reading people's stories from different contexts. 

I don't know - I suppose I'm bound not to like every book I come across, whether "good" or otherwise. 

I recommend it still, given that these are stories you don't often read, especially woven together like this. And this book might be for you, in the way it isn't for me.

In Our Mad and Furious City

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