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Pigeon English
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
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Summary
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2011
Lying in front of Harrison Opuku is a body, the body of one of his classmates, a boy known for his crazy basketball skills, who seems to have been murdered for his dinner.
Armed with a pair of camouflage binoculars and detective techniques absorbed from television shows like CSI, Harri and his best friend, Dean, plot to bring the perpetrator to justice. They gather evidence - fingerprints lifted from windows with tape, a wallet stained with blood - and lay traps to flush out the murderer. But nothing can prepare them for what happens when a criminal feels you closing in on him.
Recently emigrated from Ghana with his sister and mother to London's enormous housing projects, Harri is pure curiosity and ebullience - obsessed with gummy candy, a friend to the pigeon who visits his balcony, quite possibly the fastest runner in his school, and clearly also fast on the trail of a murderer.
Told in Harri's infectious voice and multicultural slang, Pigeon English follows in the tradition of our great novels of friendship and adventure, as Harri finds wonder, mystery, and danger in his new, ever-expanding world.
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Overall
- CA Weir
- 06-09-11
If you loved Life of Pi...
Adored this book. Perhaps even more as I'd not read any reviews, nor had heard of any of the hype surrounding this (which I found out about after).
My advice. Don't either. I loved the fact that I had no idea what this was about, or even where in the world this was. As the story unfolded it painted a very vivid picture of this boy's world that slowly I began to truly understand.
What brings this to life is the narration. Its superb, I could imagine, if you were to read just the printed book, you'd really not enjoy as much or be as immersed as I became.
Reminded me of Life of Pi, another favourite of mine, for reasons that I won't say here, but I think you'd understand having finished it.
Ultimately incredibly moving and a very rewarding listen.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Rachel
- 02-12-15
Didnt Enjoy as Much as I had Expected to
To be honest I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. I didn’t like the childlike language (and while I appreciate it is a young adult book and a book about someone who is a non-native speaker I found it very off-putting). The pigeon annoyed me as well both as the idea for the use of language and also for the commentary/thoughts of the protagonist. Much more could have been made of it, especially relating to Harrisons uprooting from Ghana to the estates of London. There are some modern culture references that did make me smile, such as adding extra brands to a pair of trainers but again I just felt the whole story was lacking something and could have been in a lot more depth exploring changes views and perspectives.
The overall story of hunting a person who committed a knife crime could have been made more interesting but I simply felt that the book didn’t get into the psyche enough of the people who live in this type of environment. It didn’t explore enough of the ideas of what being a newly migrated immigrant in London is like and how the family cope for me
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Patrick
- 31-08-11
Should have been wonderful, but..........
I wanted to like this, but, you're ahead of me; it was just TOO worthy and a bit precious and very clever and.......I realised I was no longer interested and it had become, well, boring, actually. The setting, the language ( wonderful narrator !), the drip-feeding of background information was elegantly done, however the plot had been telegraphed in advance, I think, that is, because it left me most definitely unrivetted.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Christine
- 31-01-12
Utterly Brilliant
This book has stimulated my mind in so many ways. It's funny and heartbreaking at the same time, and as for the narrator, I really believed it was a 12 year old boy from Ghana!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Maya
- 01-03-24
Problematic representation of black girls by Stephen Kelman
While I found the book engaging and I can see the writer did a lot of research for a reflection of Harri (a immigrant Ghanaian 11 year old), I was disappointed to discover that it was written by a white male author who, in my opinion, did not handle the representation of black women appropriately. The descriptions of black women as thick-lipped and possessing exaggerated physical features felt unnecessary and offensive.
The character of Miquita, a Jamaican girl (with what I can presume from the accent) in Year 9, is over-sexualized at the age of 13 and even is characterised to commit a heinous sexual assault on the protagonist, Harri. This portrayal seemed gratuitous and did not add value to her character at all- only served to represent black girls as having an insatiable desire for sex at 13. Furthermore, Harri’s perception of Miquita is inconsistent with his interactions with his white love interest, which are devoid of any sexual undertones- Harri is characterised weirdly in this scene and acting out of character to notice sexual aspects of Miquita just to state and realise he does not like them. Something different from his presentation in other scenes; to me it just shows that Kelman is committed in his presentation of black women; actually black girls as sexually offensive.
The narrative consistently portrays black women negatively, even extending to Harri’s past in Ghana where his only black love interest to which even Harri is characterised to find weird, is described as having bleached her skin, resulting in chemical burns. We are even told she does this to achieve Whiteness like the American or another European countries’ movies. While I’d be the first to say that skin bleaching is a reality for some, it would have been refreshing to see at least one positive representation of a black woman or girl who embraces her blackness and lives un-sexualised when Kelman is so determined to present every other female black girl in such a way. Another particularly troubling scene is when Harri is once again characterised to only find his sister even remotely pretty (in a sisterly way) when Miquita straightens her hair.
The constant comparison of black women’s features to those of the white character, Poppy (Harri’s love interest; the only love interest that he believes makes sense), reinforces a problematic good versus bad dichotomy. Blackness in girlhood bad, vs. Whiteness in girlhood Angelic, non-sexual, innocent and beautiful.
Is it that hard for Kelman to see the Black women/girl enjoy being black; that they could possibly like their features, and can live in a space where they are not sexualised at 13 years old and presented as so overly sexual that they would want to commit sexual violence against an innocent 11-year old boy who cant even get “hard” or whatever it was that Kelman characterises Miquita to be looking for.
In conclusion, the book’s representation of black women, as penned by a white male author, Stephen Kelman, is problematic and warrants reconsideration, surprised to find that schools in the UK actually teach this book in their GCSE’s.
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- neil
- 02-10-21
Amusing, engaging and excellent narrator
An engaging storytelling which truly reflected the thinking pattern of a child, and made me laugh out loud in places. I loved the different voices of the narrator, which brought the book to life. A sad ending but well worth a listen
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- EatSleepRugbyXV
- 07-04-21
Far too repetitive.
This could have been so good. I am just left a little saddened that it’s repetitive nature and weak storyline was not ironed out a little more.
I love the premise of a refugee boy being embroiled in a murder case. He goes out to investigate on his own with a pigeon as his London narrative.
Sadly having been on my to read pile for many years, this did not live up to the hype.
I am also unsure how this gets taught in schools. There are better books - such as ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ which I feel are better for this.
Disappointing - I would not recommend.
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- Julie A.
- 25-02-21
Intriguing!
Great plot! The underlying heavy theme is beautifully masked by Harrison's enchanting character.
I would have given the performance a 5star rating, but.the Southern African accent grated as the words are Ghanaian...i.e. West African
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- Maya W.
- 30-03-19
Unique story, originally told
The narrator needs to work on her accents is all. Her London accents are dodgy
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- Anonymous User
- 15-10-18
Terrible
Horrible voice for audio! Can hardly understand what she utters. Is this even English? Some accents needs improvising.
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