This original, sharp entry fiction explores what it means to be a young daring pitch-black guy in Britain
A few years ago, I went to hear the great Ali Smith speak during a festival hosted by the National Centre for Writing in Norwich. Her talk was predictably inspiring, it is therefore felt collapsing that the first gathering question was from an aspiring author of a certain age who launched into a lengthy diatribe against a publishing industry he claimed was overfocused on youth and novelty. “Shakespeare wouldn’t be published today, ” he said with a final, confounding flourish. Paul Mendez’s Rainbow Milk feels like a response to this kind of absurdity, a romance that does what great debuts do- creating an clevernes of voice and vision to the form, refreshing our ideas of what is possible in fiction.
Mendez’s novel plays out through two time frames that reflect upon and inform one another. The first is set in the Black Country in the late 1950 s and follows ex-boxer Norman Alonso, recently arrived with his wife, Claudette, from Jamaica. Alonso is decent and honest, gratify overt and covert prejudiced brickbats with the same level-headedness. Andrea Levy is a clear benchmark for Mendez and he brings to the hushed dignity of Alonso’s life a warmth and humanity reminiscent of Levy at her best. This narrative is a unpleasant, potent record of the Windrush generation.
Read more: theguardian.com
Recent Comments