REVIEW OF Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

(Toronto: House of Anansi, 2011. 263 pp.)

First-time novelist Stephen Kelman has achieved something like a modern-day Catcher in the Rye with the much-hyped Pigeon English. Both a coming-of-age novel and something of a murder mystery, it provides insight into the world of gangs and violent crime and their impact on young people. It is no secret why twelve publishing companies participated in a bidding war to acquire this novel.

Written from the perspective of Harrison Opoku, an 11-year-old Ghanian immigrant who lives in a London housing project, Pigeon English draws on the real-life killing of ten-year-old Damilola Taylor, a Nigerian schoolboy who died in the UK. At the beginning of the novel, a boy has been knifed to death and Harrison and his friend become amateur sleuths in a world of urban decay and violence.

The language used is a mixture of British and Ghanian slang written with just enough childhood naïveté to provide both humour and horror. At the same time as Harrison is trying to solve the murder, he is also being tested for recruitment into the local Dell Farm Crew gang. Meanwhile, he's still only eleven and busy wondering if the girl next to him in school likes him, thinking about superheroes, and trying to attract a certain pigeon to his balcony with flour. Some parts of the book are also told from the perspective of the pigeon.

The magic of the book comes directly from the sense of boyhood wonder as Harrison flails his way through this world as he considers if gangs can be for good and what makes a good detective and just why are girls so icky anyway. Poignant observations abound as when Harrison takes part in the mugging of an older gentleman from the local church. Upon realizing the identity of the target victim, he thinks, “That's when I knew why he sings louder than anybody else [at church]; it's because he's been waiting the longest for God to answer.” 

There are points at which the sense of character comes across as contrived and Harrison seems too comfortable with a language that is still supposed to be very new to him. Nevertheless, the sheer kaleidoscope of experiences refracted through this character's voice more than makes up for it.