Customer Reviews

Forest Gate: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the old council flats of London, a tragic event ripples through gang and racial warfare. James, a local black British teen from a *successful*crack-dealing family, and his best friend, Ashvin, a poet-loving Somali refugee, jump off a towering building, nooses around their necks, in a suicide pact. Ashvin dies and James survives. Ashvin's sister, Armeina (Meina), hooks up with James in shared grief to forge a tentative but tender friendship. This is their story.

There is a lot of potential in this plaintive novel of redemption. It has heart, and it murmurs. It doesn't quite sing, though. The story is narrated largely through Meina, with a few sections by James and other characters. The primary problem is that the author didn't adequately distinguish the separate voices of James and Meina--they are too similar. Even the cadence is synonymous, which you wouldn't expect from two people from separate countries and disparate backgrounds. Meina was raised in an educated home, by intellectual parents, and witnessed their terrifying, horrifying massacre at the hands of the Ethiopians during civil war strife. James was reared by the horrors and betrayals of his family and neighborhood. The lack of narrative distinction distracted and removed me from the immediacy of the story and conferred an unnatural tenor.

The book was described as tautly constructed, written with a controlled rage. I disagree. Rather, the voices were a bit precious and lacking in the subtext necessary for the reader to register the contained rage. There was restraint, but it was unintentional. The wattage was dimmed by authorial trepidation, as if Akinti was unsure of asserting the fury of his characters. This created a languid tone and lack of muscle in the prose delivery. It felt like he was playing it safe to ensure that we connected with and liked the characters. I would have preferred that he liberate himself from that self-conscious mode and get out of his own way.

Interestingly, his graphic scenes are very well done, crafted with menacing weight. They were not gratuitous. On the contrary, they exploded with tormenting finesse, like a coiled thunder. It permeated the prosaic air with a crackling heat. The violence that the Somalians endured during more than dozen civil wars is heartbreaking. And the devestrating terrors perpetrated on the youth in this London neighborhood are merciless and harrowing.

If this debut novel went through a few more drafts, it could be a dazzling, evocative story, as Akinti's talent is evident. I look forward to seeing how he evolves.

This coming of age novel is like nothing you've read before. Meina and her brother have seen and experienced unspeakable atrocities in Somalia. Her brother, Ashvin, witnessed his parents' murders, and Meina has been married off 6 times before the age of 18. A family friend and sponsor realizes that to survive the two must leave Somalia. He secretly takes them to London where they don't seem much better off. Ashvin becomes best friends with James, but both are touched by neighborhood gangs. Ashvin commits suicide while at the same time James's attempt fails. And this is just the beginning of the story...

The novel is told from the points of view of Meina and James mostly, switching POV each chapter. It is an effective storytelling method that the author does very well especially as a first time author. The story is captivating, brutal at times, and heartbreaking. One cannot help but root for the teenagers' success, but just surviving seems difficult. The author's prose creates the feeling that we are reading a non-fiction account. I could not put the book down once I started and look forward to more from this author.

It's difficult to love a novel as gritty, raw and ugly as Peter Akinti's first novel Forest Gate: A Novel but that is not to say it is without value and merit. It is an important story told with the voice of authority.

Forest Gate: A Novel is powerful fiction which I found brutally moving ~ moving me in the direction of discomfort, shock and even depression. The subject matter is all too real and spoken with raw honesty, as explosive with anger, rage and violence as that of the slums of London or war ravaged Somalia. The action is terrifying and graphic, drawn with a narrative line that runs through scenes of suicide, murder, rape, gang violence and tribal wars. Details are not spared nor should they have been. The impact from such great tragedy leads to an even greater sense of redemption.

Peter Akinti has crafted a tensely structured, unusual love story, a love story between 18 year old Meina, a Somalian refugee in London, and James, a 17 year old black man from the same inner-city slum who survives an attempted suicide. Alternating between each of their point-of-view narratives, the reader is taken into their unhappy and tragic worlds to the point of confluence in their lives. Meina tells of a ritual in her village that explains how love is a pain without remedy. This is the very theme of Forest Gate: A Novel and is beautifully told by the ritual where the village women take the pain of their lovers in ceremonial jars which are then carried to the river and the contents of pain are poured out. "Where I come from they say the water trembles because of the pain of love." It is a sensitive poetic image in great contrast to the stark and shocking realities of their stories.

I thought this was a very well done first-novel. I did feel though that Meina and James's characters were a bit too mature for the teenagers they were representing, especially in dialogue and their point-of-view narratives. I also thought the denouement was a bit underdeveloped, falling short of the power of redemptive love it was to suggest but still, I think this is a well constructed novel that should be appreciated for its powerful message.

From the brutality of modern Somalia to the mean streets of London to the relative isolation in the jungles of Brazil, Peter Akinti's powerful debut novel, "Forest Gate," charts the journey of a young couple struggling to find their own sense of calm in a world filled with calamity. When Meina and her brother escape from the atrocities they've encountered in their homeland of Somalia, they find the slums of London only a marginal improvement. The gangs, the drugs--violence begets violence. After a shocking (attempted) double suicide, Meina seeks out her brother's best friend James to try to understand the demons that have haunted her sibling.

The heart of "Forest Gate" is the tentative relationship formed between James and Meina. Suspicious of one another at first, they soon find themselves kindred spirits. James is the youngest in a family of gangland drug dealers. Because of the commonalities in their violent upbringings, they are drawn together. But with a surprising amount of tenderness and an indelible sense of hope, James and Meina yearn to break the binds of the past. In a novel filled with such powerful rage and graphic violence, this relationship stands in stark contrast to what one might expect. And with irony, it is the most horrific and bloody tragedy imaginable that might give them a shot at redemption and freedom.

"Forest Gate" is a brief, taut, and angry novella that manages to convey both real horror and heartbreaking sweetness. It is a surprisingly topical, effective, and unusual love story. Akinti is definitely someone I'd like to hear from again. If "Forest Gate" is any indication, he may just be an important addition to contemporary literature and social commentary.

james morrison and his five brothers are second generation, maybe third generation, citizens of england. at least two generations of the morrison family have lived in the drug infested council houses of london, ironically called `estates', similar to urban inner city housing projects in the united states. we don't know how the morrisons got there, which african country they're from, or if they're the grandchildren of refugees or a part of a migration of africans to london that did not succeed. we aren't even given the names of james' brothers, instead they're referred to as numbers one through five. we know them only as drug dealers and their mother as a drug user, except for james, who doesn't want to be a drug dealer and wants to escape the council houses. he doesn't have a clue how to get away from his environment.

james meets and befriends ashvin, son of a highly educated stable family aware of their past. ashvin and armeina's family history in general is familiar to readers of works by chinua achebe and other african writers who described post -colonialism, the traditional past, and the `been-to' -- the african who traveled to europe for an education and returned home. the parents of ashvin and his sister, meina, met in europe while studying, each earning a ph.d before returning to their home in somalia.

that's where the old story ends. the new story is tribal and religious wars, and slaughter, and the new african travelers to europe aren't seeking education as much as refuge. ashvin and meina are brutalized orphans and refugees abandoned in the council houses and a cycle of urban city violence in a europe not experienced by their parents.

intelligent, funny, at another time, ashvin would be a great guy to pal around with, but shattered by his experiences in somalia and assaulted almost daily on the streets of east london by gang members, police, and the defeated working class who perceives ashvin as `the problem', ashvin talks james into a twin suicide pact as their way out. when ashvin succeeds and james fails, meina invites james to move in with her.

from this point the novel becomes a study of acts of contrition by family and friends, as james is walked every step in the company of someone who cares toward a place to heal.

james baldwin's novel `another country' achieves near cult status in 'forest gate'. particularly for james morrison who talks about the book constantly. and baldwin's face appears on a t-shirt, a post-modernist touch as reminder that some of the plot is based on `another country'. peter akinti appears worried that reviewers will fail to notice the signs and won't get the word to the readers.

this isn't a masterpiece, but it is a good book.

In some cases, books fit their length. "Forest Gate," unfortunately, is slim in length and in substance. It is a quick read that gives the reader a taste of the violence and abuse that accompanies the immigrant experience in London, but not much else. Using flashbacks and visceral language to tell the story, you can feel the pain of the writing crash on you, heavily. Some of the tales that Akinti relates are shocking, but they feel hollow and take away from some of the finer aspects of the prose. And that is what saves Akinti's novel from being a complete disappointment: his way with words. Otherwise, the characters feel like stock manipulations; the location and subject matter are stark but familiar. The characters sometimes feel like tools to a greater end, and the book reads that way. Descriptions of people in their environment are Akinti's strength; this might have been an excellent essay or novella, but as a full book, it can't maintain its own velocity.

Forest Gate was a very powerful, well written piece. The characters were interesting and well developed and the story one that spellbinding to read. I didn't want it to end and I am looking forward to his second installment.

This is a novel written by Peter Akinti, a Nigerian writer living in Great Britain. The story is about a brother and sister from Somalia trying to survive a London slum called Forest Gate. When the brother commits suicide with a Black man named James (who lives) her life changes dramatically. She finds herself trying to reconcile the tragedy of her murdered parents in Somalia and the violence of the slums of London. James is also coping with surviving his suicide attempt and trying to remove himself from his family's business, drug dealing. An interesting, absorbing first novel marred by too many improbably events.

Very well written, and even though it was a sad and somewhat depressing book, I couldn't put it down. Things just aren't what they seem to be....ever....

This was a really good read. Be careful, there is some seriuosly grim content and some harsh language, but still a gripping read. It is raw and graphic and sad and engaging.
The story is about two friends growing up in the slums of London. One is a Somali immagrint, the other the youngest of 5 brothers who are big time drug dealers. These two boys, Ashvin and James decide they don't want to live in this world anymore so they make a pact to jump off a building. They do. Ashvin dies but James lives.
The story then follows James and Ashvin's sister, Meina, on a journey of trying to find meaning in this live and a proper place in this world.
For those that can stomach a pretty brutal story, this is quick read that you can enjoy. Well, enjoy isn't quite the right term, but it is a story that will draw you in, break your heart, then help you put it back together again.
*The only problem with this book is that it is set in London and so uses some British English and London slang that was just a little bit confusing at times.

**I recieved this book as an ARC and did not pay for it but that did not influence my opinion.