In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) by Guy Gunaratne

 Hamish’s choices

Theme: *No theme*

READ: In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) by Guy Gunaratne

WATCH: Wonderland (1999) dir by Michael Winterbottom

Thursday 9th February 2023 @ 7:45 pm

Sadly Hamish was not able to witness what went down first hand, preferring to take a spontaneous ski trip so he sent his musings in via the email

In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne explores immigration, racism, intolerance and extremism. Its multi perspective, multi narrative novel takes place over two days and focuses on three young men - Selvon, Ardan and Yusuf - who live in a London estate in Neasden during a summer of unrest. 

Two other narratives, which ultimately tie in with the three central characters, both serve to remind us that religious conflict and intolerance is nothing new 

In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) by Guy Gunaratne

Hamish: Really sorry I can't be with the wonderful HBG. Frankly though, whilst I love you all deeply, I love skiing more!

So, I am endlessly fascinated by language, both foreign and, in the way it is evolving, English. Having a teenager at home using similar language is fascinating. Swear down. Bare. Allow it. Mandem. Nuttan. Great phrases that are changing the way we communicate. I love the way youth tries to alienate the elders! Rees-Mogg must be horrified, no time for an Oxford comma here. It is a bit fraught with misappropriation danger, particularly by teenage boy roadmen, but I genuinely think English is evolving in interesting ways. Hopefully concurrently with increasing integration of people from different backgrounds.

I read Gabriel Krauze's Who They Was a while back. An excellent semi-autobiographical novel about gangs and estates in London. Far more crime driven than the current book, but both books were referred to in an article I read. Which led to our mad and furious capital city.

Whilst Selvon, Yoos and Ardan speak like Krauze's gang members, this book is a far more positive take on community and love. Without labouring the point, Guy quietly shows how integration between different ethnic communities has happened, perhaps particularly in London. The football scene was great.  The contrast between the quiet respect and friendship of the early parts with the minority extremism of later parts was striking.

The three lads are close, respectful of each other and share a lot, but keep their distance in certain ways too. I thought Guy captured their male teenage relationships very convincingly. As well as capturing language and phrasing brilliantly, Guy also evoked the edginess and tension of the urban environment that they inhabit.

We have had a few books recently with pleasing bite sized chapters. Perfect for a bedtime read. This time the distinction was switching from one character to another. Not only did I enjoy the switches around the different characters, but the gradual reveal of the family links was great too. 

Nelson and Caroline were both convincing characters who added an extra dimension. Indeed the juxtaposition of the youth with the older generation, Windrush and Northern Ireland worked really well. It really demonstrated how troubled times percolate through the ages and, I guess, both how life goes on and also how bad things always happen.

One slight criticism is I found the trigger of the killing of a soldier a little odd. It was too clearly based on Lee Rigby and yet without being Lee Rigby. Seemed a bit odd.

As a book group discussion, I suspect it will probably be more for the themes of London, diversity, community, immigration, estates and, as the author writes at the end, the power of love, than any widely diverging views on whether the book is any good. Though there's always Keith and Roland to shake things up!

I'll stop wittering on now. Hopefully you'll have a great evening. Look forward to hearing about it.

So what about the rest of us?

Nick was reminded of Capital by John Lanchester. He acknowledged the ambition but dubbed it “a miss” that meandered and lacked authenticity

Roland also acknowledged the book’s promise but, despite the best sex scene in his time with HBG, said it didn’t work

Robin - irritated 

Keith was more positive and found plenty to love

Robin found it irritating and had nothing else to say apart from that it could have been 12 times better

Tristan, vexed by the negativity and luke warm reaction, would not allow it. “You’re all wrong ennet” he exclaimed. All the characters are nuanced and convincing before going on to rhapsodise about the book’s many merits. The use of language convinced and perfectly captured London street life.

Nigel kept the love and positivity going having wondered if we’d been reading the same novel. He described In Our Mad and Furious City as a satisfying and powerful London novel about youth culture. 

Although published before these books, In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne reminded Nigel of both Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze and The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong - also both excellent.

Nick 6 / Tristan 7.5 / Nigel 8 / Keith 7  / Roland 6 / Robin 3 / Hamish 9

*

WATCH: Wonderland (1999) dir by Michael Winterbottom

Hamish: Middling for me unfortunately. Enjoyable and fairly engrossing watch and like the book, it did capture something of London's grit and reality. The late night scenes were really reminiscent for me of the time I lived in London. The story and characters were convincing. I do like John Simm (pre his descent into crappie detective stories) and Gina McKee

Mike Leighesque, but not quite as good. The plot convinced, but wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped. I enjoyed the positive ending after a fairly bleak story.

Everyone else...

To varying degrees most of us (except Roland) agreed it was a solid if downbeat film that provided an interesting and convincing snapshot of late 1990s London which felt from a totally different age. The London streets scenes are probably the best thing about it: a Crystal Palace home match, various cafes and pubs, a South East London estate etc. 

Some of us felt Michael Nyman's inappropriate romantic soundtrack felt out of place. So, whilst an interesting watch, it's also a wasted opportunity given the talent involved.

Roland on the other hand was transfixed. He has a major crush on Gina McKee which helped but he also lauded every aspect of a masterly work of cinema

Nick 6 / Tristan 3 / Nigel 6 / Keith  -  / Roland 9 / Robin 7 / Hamish 7

*

Endorse it: 5 January 2023 -> 9 February 2023

Too Good To Go (App)

The Last of Us (Sky TV)

Dickens and Prince: A Peculiar Kind of Genius by Nick Hornby (Book)

You People (Netflix)

The Good Nurse (Netflix)

Argentina 1985 (Netflix)

Endorsement: Aftersun (2022) (Film)

Fatboy Slim: Right Here Right Now (Sky Documentaries)

Merlin Sheldrake - Entangled Life (Book)

Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed The World (iPlayer)

Sound Affects (Monthly music talks at East Street Tap, Brighton)

B&H Regency Society photographic images (website)

Happy Valley, Series 3 (iPlayer)

The Humans (Netflix)

All Quiet On The Western Front (Film) (Netflix)

Michael Pollan on Desert Island Discs (BBC Sounds)

Goldie Lookin Chain (Live music)

Good luck to you, Leo Grande (Prime)

Early Doors (BBC iPlayer)

Rockaway Beach 2023 (Festival)

Pool Parties @ Rockaway Beach (Themed Pool Party)

"The Lowlife" by Alexander Baron

Nigel: Celebrates London

The movers and the shakers that make up Hove Book Group assembled in The Poets Corner pub on Thursday 24th April 2014 to pore over Nigel's "Celebrate London" choices.

Nigel explained how he is attracted to literature written about London and so was inspired to put curate a London-centric set of choices...

"The Lowlife" (1963) by Alexander Baron

Nigel explained how Alexander Baron was a renowned London author and very popular in his day.  The Lowlife (1963) is the third book that Nigel had read by Alexander Baron (1917-1999) and follows King Dido (1969) and The Human Kind (1953). Nigel announced how he is now resolved to read all his work.  

Baron's first novel, From the City, from the Plough (1948), was a best seller. It was based on Alexander Baron's own war service, fighting across France from the Normandy D-Day beaches. From the City, from the Plough was the first of a WW2 trilogy. Baron also went on to write many London novels which were similarly based largely on personal experience and observation and which includes The Lowlife. 

The Lowlife tells the story of Harryboy Boas, a Jewish veteran of WW2, a gambler, a womaniser, a philosopher, and a man of integrity and compassion. All Harry wants is to be left alone to enjoy his solitary life: either - and when his winnings from the dog track allow him the time and space - to eat, read, and meet women, or - when he needs cash - to work in short-term jobs to build up more stake money. 

Harryboy is afflicted by guilt. Guilt about his own dead child who may never have existed and who, despite this uncertainty, Harry believes may been killed during the holocaust. Harryboy consciously tries to get away from his family, his religion, and the expectations of others. His sister Debbie, who has moved out to the the respectable suburbs, worries about him and wants to see him settled down and financially secure. 

Although Harryboy is a confirmed loner he gets sucked into the life of his neighbours at his boarding house, and in particular Vic and Evelyn along with their young son Gregory. Evelyn, with her middle class aspirations, is the antithesis of Harry, and she cannot bear Hackney or the boarding house she is forced to live in. Harry's involvement with Vic, Evelyn and Gregory is the catalyst for Harry's life to unravel spectacularly.

Nigel concluded that this is an extraordinary novel that explores East London, tradition, guilt, snobbery, social history, families, loyalty, sacrifice, immigration, property, desire, racism, pride and all within the framework of an original and exciting tale about gambling, debt, and gangsters. Another splendid book byAlexander Baron who is deservedly getting republished and rediscovered by a new generation of readers.   9/10

Tristan "a vanished society"

Tristan enjoyed the evocation of a vanished society and also enjoyed the Jewish elements in the novel.  Tristan felt it was "a very Jewish novel" - 'I should have such luck', Tristan exclaimed.  Harryboy's sister, Debbie, who has married well and lives with her bookmaker husband in 'the smart part' of Finchley, is persistently trying to get Harry settled down.

Tristan warmed to Harryboy who, despite being something of a loser, has style.  However, where the novel really scored for Tristan was the powerful evocation of a place and a time.  6.5/10

Robin declared "The Lowlife" to be "quite brilliant".  A book that despite some complex themes was simply told.

Harryboy embraces fate as a way of separating himself from family, faith and the expectations of others.  He is cheered by the surviving traditions of the East End whilst acknowledging how the area constantly changes.  Like Hackney, Robin was permanently changed by this book.  8.5/10

Keith kept the love for the book, and indeed for literature, flowing like molten lava, and declared it "a compelling and moving narrative of flawed humanity".  An engaging style quickly won Keith over, the fine structure delighted him.  The hopes and tragedies of the metropolis are simply evoked by Baron and the ups and downs of our Hackney hero.  Harryboy is a complex individual: intelligent, stylish and charming, and yet listless and driven by a hidden guilt to avoid emotional attachments and responsibility.  His personality giving Baron an opportunity to bring to life the dogs, the bookies, the brasses, the gourmet food, and long literary reading sessions.  All of this is thrown into chaos by a new family and even whilst almost achieving redemption Harryboy is on the verge of destruction.  There ain't half been some clever bastards.  7/10

Nick was moved by the book, moved by both the dignity and the suffering that Baron described.  "A cracking read" and a rock solid 8/10.  Baron's accessible writing has both clarity and a punch, and is by turns funny, poignant and moving.   Nick really enjoyed opening a window on the forgotten world of early-1960s London.  

Don - absent

Don was present only in spirit, however through the medium of email, we were able to share his inner most thoughts.  Don warmed to Harryboy and really enjoyed the contrast between him idling his days away reading Zola…….and blowing money on the dogs.  Harryboy's tolerance for Gregory was moving in a non emotional sort of way, however Evelyn and her loser of a husband were wonderfully crafted characters.  The end completely surprised Don but not the ingratitude of the family who had leached off Harryboy’s better nature.  A fine book club choice.   8/10

FILM: "London - The Modern Babylon" (2102) dir by Julien Temple

London - The Modern Babylon is legendary director Julien Temple's epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown.

From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and above all ordinary people, this is the story of London's immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever. Reaching back to London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive and the voices of Londoners past and present, powered by the popular music across the century. It ends now, as London prepares to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympics.

Everyone loved this film.

MUSIC: "Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Very Best Of Ian Dury & The Blockheads" (1999)

The late Ian Dury's work ethic and never-give-up attitude left the world with some memorable music. We discussed 18 tracks that are amongst the very best of the great man's work. including "Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll," "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick," and "Sweet Gene Vincent". 

There is humour in bushels in this music . All of it backed by a band that never got credit for how tight and versatile it was, how it drove Dury onto ever greater lyrical achievements.  

The perfect musical accompaniment to our celebration of London.

"Hangover Square" by Patrick Hamilton

Brighton hotel room @ Hangover Square exhibition,
University of Brighton Gallery, 5-27 May 2012

The Hove Book Group reconvened on Thursday 14th June 2012 at The Poets' Corner pub to discuss their very own Patrick Hamilton Festival.  Inspired by the Brighton Festival's events centred around the 50th anniversary of Patrick Hamilton's death, Nigel suggested the novel "Hangover Square" by Patrick Hamilton.  

There was a Hangover Square exhibition at University of Brighton Gallery that ran from 5th-27th May 2012. Keith, Tristan, Hamish and Nigel attended this exhibition.

Nigel Jones, Laura Wilson and Peter Guttridge
@ The Life and Work of Patrick Hamilton discussion,
Sallis Benney Theatre, University of Brighton, Sussex,
England on Friday 11th May 2012

Brighton Festival arranged a talk entitled "The Life and Work Of Patrick Hamilton" on Friday 11th May 2012 at the Sallis Benney Theatre, University of Brighton.  Nigel and Hamish attended this event.  The talk was chaired by Peter Guttridge, and the discussion explored Hamilton's life and work from his early stage thrillers Rope and Gaslight including, of course, Hangover Square (1941). The man on the left of the photo is Hamilton’s biographer Nigel Jones (Through a Glass Darkly) and the woman in the middle is crime novelist Laura Wilson (A Little Death, Dying Voices).  The event was produced by Sarah Hutchings and the Collected Works team.

Nigel had also provided an Imagined Soundtrack to the novel that predominantly featured music from the period when the book was written.

Hangover Square: nigeyb's imagined soundtrack by Nigeyb on Mixcloud

Nigel explained that he had wanted to read "Hangover Square" for sometime having developed a fascination with the English literature of the 1930s and 1940s.  Patrick Hamilton was a name that came up frequently in the context of key writers of the period.  His connection with Hove made Patrick Hamilton even more appealing.

"Hangover Square" was written at the peak of Patrick Hamilton's fame - which was by this time considerable.  Like all Patrick Hamilton's novels, the story is in part inspired by incidents from Patrick Hamilton's life.  Like the protagonist and narrator George Harvey Bone, Hamilton's life was becoming saturated in alcohol; and like Bone he too was obsessed by an unattainable woman, in Hamilton's case she was actress Geraldine Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald is the inspiration for Netta and in a sense could be Hamilton's revenge on her given the unflattering portrait ("She was completely, indeed sinisterly devoid of all those qualities which her face and body externally proclaimed her to have - pensiveness, grace, warmth, agility, beauty ... Her thoughts resembled those of a fish..").  In a nice touch, the film magazine in Netta's flat in the Hangover Square exhibition had a photo of  Geraldine Fitzgerald on the cover.

Geraldine Fitzgerald on the cover of Film Weekly
@ the Hangover Square exhibition,
University of Brighton Gallery, 5-27 May 2012

Where the book really succeeded for Nigel was in its evocation of London as war looms.  The book was written under the shadow of seemingly unstoppable advance of Germany and Nazism.  The novel searches for a human metaphor to express the sickness that Hamilton perceived in this period.  As a Marxist he identified the petty bourgeoisie from which Netta and Peter had sprung as the enemy.  Peter, and the stranger who comes down to Brighton with Netta and Peter, are both fascists.  The Hangover Square exhibition evoked a scene from the visit to Brighton really powerfully.  Whilst standing in a recreation of Bone's Brighton hotel room the participant listens to an extended section from this part of the novel.  Most powerfully, the part where Bone cannot sleep as he listens to Netta and the stranger talking before making love.  Torture for poor old Bone and the prelude to another schizophrenic episode where he resolves, again, to kill Netta and Peter.

Brighton hotel room @ the Hangover Square exhibition,
University of Brighton Gallery, 5-27 May 2012

The spectre of the forthcoming war, and discussions of fascism, and nods towards contemporary cinema (e.g going to the cinema to see a Tarzan film with Johnny Weismuller and Maureen O'Sullivan on the day Germany invade Poland) all added to the magic for Nigel, the book being full of such wonderful period detail.

Nigel really enjoys good quality London fiction (he's almost finished another classic London novel from the same period "London Belongs To Me" by Norman Collins) and declared that "Hangover Square" is "right up there with the best". As the back of his edition states "you can almost smell the gin".  By the end of the book Nigel felt he'd been in and out of a succession of smoky, shabby Earls Court boozers with George and his unsavoury companions.  Netta, the book's femme fatale, is a wonderful fictional creation - beguiling but also totally self-serving.

The perspectives from various different characters enriched Nigel's experience. Even a very minor character such as the young man Bone meets towards the end gives an illuminating and detached perspective of George and his companions.

Nigel found it a very moving book. The reader quickly realises that George has to forget Netta and move on. He knows it too. Yet he just can't escape her. A true lost soul. Nigel felt almost as happy as George after his successful round of golf in Brighton that gives him a glimpse of how life could be away from Netta and her boozy coterie.

It ends in the only way it could. All said, Nigel thought it was a masterpiece. 10/10

A burgeoning Patrick Hamilton collection

Nigel has subsequently read "Through A Glass Darkly" a biography of Patrick Hamilton by Nigel Jones; the Gorse Trilogy; and "The Slaves Of Solitude".  He stated there's more to follow.  He might even mention some of them here.

Keith described "Hangover Square" as "a good book" and "a very human tale".  He thought all the relationships were dependent on getting something from the other person.

For Keith, what made the book so extraordinary was the total authenticity of the characters. It doesn't deal in great universal truths, other than unfulfilled potential and unrequited love, but it does deal in the minutiae of ordinary everyday life, and does so brilliantly. Netta is a hateful villain, but also fully realised and her willing victim, the hapless George, is heartbreakingly credible.  7/10

Quote @ the Hangover Square exhibition,
University of Brighton Gallery, 5-27 May 2012

Tristan wished he hadn't been to the exhibition before finishing the book as he came across a spoiler that undermined his enjoyment of the book.

Tristan liked the natural style and really enjoyed reading about Brighton and London in the 1930s.  He was less enthralled by the protracted ending.  That said, Tristan saw Netta as an evil like Nazism itself, and that Bone's longing for her is actually a longing for freedom and peace, which she will never allow him. 

Tristan thought Hamilton's descriptions of Netta were brilliant, for example "resembled those of a fish - something seen floating in a tank, brooding, self-absorbed, frigid, moving… Netta Longdon thought of everything in a curiously dull, brutish way… She was completely, indeed sinisterly, devoid of all those qualities which her face and body externally proclaimed her to have - pensiveness, grace, warmth, agility, beauty." Alas, as Tristan observed, her thuggish brain is exalted, not by the pitiful George Bone, but the Mosley-ite Peter.  7/10

Brighton hotel room @ Hangover Square exhibition,
University of Brighton Gallery, 5-27 May 2012

Hamish was very enthusiastic and described the atmosphere of the book as "absolutely fantastic".  He thought there was "great detail in both the book and the exhibition".  

Hamish saw parallels between George's concessions and Chamberlain's policy of appeasement.  Despite the ever present homicidal tendencies exacerbated by George's illness the sympathy of the reader is always with George.  Hamish's sympathy was further underlined as it became clearer that Netta and Peter were closet fascists who are keen on Chamberlain's accommodation with Hitler.  At the novel's conclusion George finally kills them both on the day, in 1939, that Germany invades Poland.  Even the character's name - George - seemed to evoke England's patron saint.  A great observation and a lavish 8.5/10.

Robin texted a rating of 8/10.  The overall Hove Book Group rating was therefore also 8/10.

Nigel, Hamish, Tristan and Keith had all also watched a BBC4 adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's "Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky" trilogy on DVD.  Three interlinked stories centred around a pub in Euston.

In a world of smoky pubs and foggy lamplights, down-at-heel workers and forlorn lovers, the story focuses on The Midnight Bell, a bar off the Euston Road, and observes the impossibility of love between three protagonists. 

Bob, the pub’s barman, is infatuated with penniless prostitute Jenny, believing that he can rescue her through his rapidly diminishing savings. Barmaid Ella, while attracting the attentions of an older, wealthier man, casts lovelorn glances at her colleague. Meanwhile, Jenny, forced onto the streets through poverty, has little time for such niceties, as she casts her flirtatious eyes about in search of custom. This “spellbinding” (The Times) drama observes the struggles of ordinary lives lived close to the poverty line, and the torments and drives of unrequited love, ambition and disappointment. 

Keith declared it not his thing but OK.  Tristan thought it was a classic.  Hamish enjoyed it as did Nigel.  All agreed that it was a good compliment to "Hangover Square".  

And so another convivial evening drew to a close and Hove's finest drifted into the cool Summer's night.  

Next time out the Hove Book Group will be discussing "Blindness" by José Saramago.