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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Behavior is driven by fear of farce.", July 26, 2004
This review is from: The London Pigeon Wars: A Novel (Hardcover)
Karen Miller, ten years out of college, is working for the city of London Transit Committee when she is assigned to become the "pigeon czar." The city's pigeons have divided into two warring factions, attacking each other in flight, flying into apartment buildings, and breaking windshields of BMWs when they plummet dead from the skies. In dual, compelling narratives, Patrick Neate reveals the progress of these pigeon wars, told from the point of view of Ravenscourt, a pigeon soldier supporting Gunnersbury, and from the perspective of Karen and six of her friends, ten years after college. Skewering the aimlessness of these "twirty-somethings," who are so busy looking at the ground that they ignore the world above them, he reveals them to be much like the pigeons, living in the instant, lacking direction and purpose, reacting rather than thinking, and often fighting.
When the mysterious Murray, a Mephistophelean friend from college, arrives in town, he exerts the same vibrant spell on his friends as he did in the past, when he was famous for "Murray-fun," or, perhaps, "social terrorism." When he suggests his latest idea, all are ready for a change. Karen is in the midst of a bad love affair. Freya Franklin, a hat designer, is struggling with a new business. Tom Dare, an unhappy teacher, has had affairs with both Karen and Freya. Emma, a new mother suffering from some sort of wasting disease, is married to Tariq, whose business has failed. Kwesi, a poet of "ghetto chic" gives readings in which his delivery, manner, and accent are worse than his poetry, and Ami is a TV weather-girl. The reader soon observes Murray's growing power as he plans his newest "fun," which requires "enough" guns. Meanwhile, the pigeons are at war, sabotaging each other, struggling to capture the "Remnant of Content," and interacting with the "peepniks" (people) and particularly with Murray, whom they call "Mishap."
Neate's use of language is fascinating and often "cute," especially in the pigeon narratives. "Slowtion," "flixtures," and "nobirdy," for example, are obvious elisions which contribute to a different language for the pigeons, who also refer to "coochies," "geezes," and "squibs," the meanings obvious through context. Neate, with a fondness for philosophy, puts his characters (and pigeons) into the wider context of the "time before time," wondering if "content is really the height of my dreams, and will I ever even dream again?" As the wars wind down and the fate of Murray hangs in the balance, Neate requires the reader to think, even as he entertains and satirizes the "society" in which both peepniks and pigeons operate. Mary Whipple
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pigeon-Plot and People-Plot at War with Each Other?, May 19, 2006
This review is from: The London Pigeon Wars: A Novel (Hardcover)
It almost seems as though there are several different books about the same people competing for space within the covers of "The London Pigeon Wars." The first is a magical-realism sort of story about some London pigeons who develop consciousness, and consequently some unappealling human clannishness and territoriality (they start a civil war of sorts). This bit is told by the eyes of one narrator, one of the newly-alert pigeons.
The second is a Friends/Big-Chill sort of book about a small group of London "thirtysomethings" trying to make sense of their lives and relationships.
The third is a kind of thriller - a bank robbery, a long con or two or three, and a murder are involved.
Each of these strands is interesting in itself, and there are both well-written small bits (funny individual scenes, vivid descriptions of particular characters, etc.) and some plot twists that are genuinely surprising. But I never got over the feeling that the bits of the book were fighting over the space, the way the pigeons fought over London, and the threads never really came together the way I had hoped. Nevertheless I will look forward to Neate's next book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
At least it's different..., December 4, 2004
This review is from: The London Pigeon Wars: A Novel (Hardcover)
There are two, or possibly three, stories in The London Pigeon Wars. One (the one that takes up most of the book, or at least it seemed that way while I was reading it) is a soap-opera with a cast of like seven or eight twenty-or-thirty-something hip-but-struggling young people in modern London. They do poetry readings and open hat shops and predictive-software startups and have babies (well, one baby) and flashback to when they were all (or some) in school together, and get drunk and have fights and reconcilliations and stuff.
I could have done with a bit less of that plot, but that's probably just because I'm a heartless geek. I mean, they're nice and well-drawn enough people, but do I really care if Karen and Tom get back together?
The second story is about how the pigeons of London briefly get self-consciousness and language, and have a big civil war. This is a daring and brilliant hook, and the language of the pigeons is quirky and strange and almost always avoids being annoying.
"Do you object if I take a ninety from the narrative thrust and detach myself like a sulky coochie from the flock (who's just dropped the squirmiest squirm into the reservoirs at Barnes, say, or lost the handsomest geez to some harlot rival with no charms but a coy coochie-coo)?"
This part of the book (told in the first-pigeon by a bird named Ravenscourt) is fun, and has some interesting squirms in it about consciousness and contentment and conflict and all.
The third story, that's supposed to tie together the other two, is about this guy Murray that the other cast members knew in school, who shows up again after ten years and has various effects on them. He has amazing magical powers of persuasion and charisma and generally making things happens. He has no last name, and he eats only chicken. He changes the shape of the relationships in the soap opera, generally for the better, and he is somehow related to the consciousness of the pigeons as well.
It's a fun read (although a bit heavy on the soap opera), but ultimately the third story doesn't really succeed in tying together the other two. Murray's magical powers of personality feel like a continuous ex machina; in any situation he does or causes whatever the author needs done or caused.
And we never really do get an explantion of the pigeon consciousness (unless I was just too dense to get it), aside from the fact that Murray and his mysterious history are somehow involved. We do get a revelation of one vital fact about what happened to him ten years ago, but we don't find out why he has no last name, why he only eats chicken, why he's intent on robbing a bank, why his personality is so stunningly impactful, or why a castoff bit of his lunch caused (or didn't cause) the pigeon thing.
So. Fun read, various flaws, not amazing or life-changing but probably worth the time spent reading. And at least it's different...
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