Pigeon English has been panned by many Booker Prize devotees, but I absolutely loved it. In fact, of the five shortlist titles that I’ve read, it is the one that has stayed with me the most and the one that I’d like to see win. (Note: I wouldn’t be disappointed if The Sisters Brothers, Snowdrops, or The Sense of an Ending wins, either. I unfortunately could not read Half Blood Blues as it wasn’t available in the USA so I can’t give an opinion on it. I didn’t care for Jamrach’s Menagerie.)
Some of the reasons for it being panned may include the simple language, the heavy use of slang, and the fact that one of the minor characters is, in fact, a pigeon. None of that bothered me in the slightest. It only added to my appreciation of the book.
Harrison is a boy who has come to London from Ghana. A classmate of his is murdered, and he and a friend set out to find the killer. Yes, Harrison has a tendency to repeat himself. Yes, Harrison uses slang, if not in every sentence, then in every paragraph. Yes, he has childish, little boy tendencies and quirks. As a mother of two boys myself, I recognized most of these supposed ‘faults’ as completely believable, common attributes of boys in this age range.
I loved Harrison and his voice in the book. I did not know the real life story it was based on, so I had no way of knowing the outcome of the story. But as I said, this is the one book that I thought about afterwards the most. Good luck to Stephen Kelman, and congratulations on your Booker shortlist nomination. Pigeon English deserves its place there.
FTC Disclosure: I read the first two chapters before publication via Netgalley. I re-read those chapters and the rest of the book courtesy of my local public library.
