Guy Gunaratne
Author of In Our Mad and Furious City
Works by Guy Gunaratne
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1984
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Country (for map)
- UK
- Birthplace
- London
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Malmö, Sweden - Occupations
- video journalist
designer
documentary filmmaker
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Members
- 206
- Popularity
- #107,332
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 12
- ISBNs
- 16
- Languages
- 2
First, let me say that even though I didn't personally love this book, I am very surprised it wasn't shortlisted for the Man Booker. I read four of the shortlisted titles, and I think this book is more innovative and powerful (and frankly, interesting) than any of the four I read.
Putting that to the side, I will say that I felt the book took its time getting its footing. For the first half, I had two issues. Each person speaks in their own vernacular, and honestly I find it exhausting to try to decipher these dialects while following the story. None of them were especially hard (the Milkman it was not), and I do think it was a defensible choice . . .but what it really meant was that I took about a third of the book to really find my reading rhythm.
The latter half was excellent. Characters begin to truly reveal themselves and there were some plot points that had me gasping. I thought it was very clever of the author to demonstrate how violence escalates on the basis of untruths and innuendo. But he also had hopeful moments and left the door open for happiness for some of the characters. It was an excellent balance, and when I closed the book, I was satisfied and happy I had read it. This book is a debut novel, so I expect to see great things from this author going forward.
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