The London Pigeon Wars

Rating:
Summary: "Behavior is driven by fear of farce."
Review: 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


Rating:
Summary: "Happiness is a by-product of what you do"
Review: Readers will probably remember The London Pigeon Wars for the fun author Patrick Neate has with word play. He's invented a whole new parallel language for his group of irascible, world-weary birds that decide to launch a war over the battle scarred, grey skies of London. But the ravaged and despoiled pigeons are only part of the story: Neate is at his best when he explores the lives of eight young "twirtysomethings," young, urban groovers who are "not all rich or powerful or happy, but have starring roles in the imagined movies of their own lives." Neate's protagonists certainly know how to maneuver around London - they're without doubt totally adept at chewing on the city, as they "pick it clean like jackals, and gorge on its waste like pigeons."

The London Pigeon Wars is certainly an original, well-written, and clever novel. It combines the primeval and macabre with a shadowy, dark humor and contemporary metaphor. Neate takes us on an inventive journey through the dark underbelly of one of the world's most famous cities, told from the perspective of both humans and pigeons. Neate examines the nature of class, relationships and the chaos of life as Emma, Tom, Tariq, Karen, Kwesi, Freya, Ami, and the "social terrorist" Murray try to make sense of the world and obtain meaning out of their muddled, frenzied, and mixed-up lives.

Murray has returned to his group of friends after ten years. He wants to pull his mates' lives out of the London doldrums by suggesting they rob a bank for kicks. When they were at university together, Murray, a sociopath by nature, who addresses everyone as "china" and is a frenetic eater of chicken, has made a career of performing all kinds jokes on people, something that his loyal friends have coined as "Murray-fun." On his return, however, his friends aren't as enthusiastic for his antics as they used to be, so Murray tries to help them reconnect with life in other ways. Murray's return is also linked to the pigeon wars, which is told through the voice of an old pigeon named Ravenscourt.

Ravenscourt narrates the story of the war initiated by an event known as "Trafalgar," where the future leaders of two pigeon armies tussle over the remnants of Murray's discarded box of KFC. The old bird's speeches appear as short interludes between chapters of the principal narrative. Employing the voice of Ravenscourt, Neate instills the playfulness and the charm of London street vernacular into the deliberations. The avian language is slick and inventive, and it may take readers a while to grasp the meaning of many of the words: the prose is littered with references to "geez" (dudes), "coochies" (ladies), "peepnicks" (those silly humans), and "squirms" (worms).

Neate's powers of contemporary social observation are formidable. And he portrays a London where authenticity has become ever more meaningless and where "politics, race and class are less statements of identity than descriptions of the way you choose to accessorize." Neate's London is a city that is full of eighties comedians "clutching corporate video clips, brassy former soap stars who are all slap and no dash, reality TV rejects, and male-model types with puckered lips." With dark, acerbic humor, and a sense of the offbeat, Neate has written a compelling novel of great originality that portrays an astute understanding of human (and pigeon) nature. Mike Leonard October 04.


Rating:
Summary: Strange events are in the air
Review: Strange events are in the air--literally- in this novel set in contemporary London. The novel weaves together two parallel narratives that concern the same space and time as experienced by intelligent beings of different species. Humans on the ground and pigeons above view the same world from diffent vantage points, and are more or less equally mystified most of the time. The birds and humans have occasional flashes of brilliant insight, although this reader, I fear, did not always grasp them.

The human story is a fairly conventional black comedy about a group of former school friends who have spent a decade in the adult world, and have found it largely disappointing. In one way or another, they are all wishing for a way out or a way back to a more innocent state of being. The bird story is narrated by an elderly pigeon who is attempting to explain and understand how he and the rest of London's pigeon population became self-aware and capable of language all at once on one particular day. The human tale is told in standard English with dashes of current slang and jargon. The pigeon part is written in a brilliantly inventive --what else--pidgen English that I found a treat to read.

The novel attempts to bring the two story lines together through a mysterious character named Murray. He was a legendary college madcap who suddenly disappeared from the scene following a quarrel with one of his mates. After an unexplained ten year absence, he suddenly appears at a party where his old friends have by chance all congregated. Murray also appears as a key figure in the pigeon narratives. What makes him so important in both the bird and human world? It's a question that I don't think the novel ever really answers.

The double narrative didn't really work for me, but the pigeon story was an exhilarating and thought-provoking read. I feel that 3 stars is not quite the right rating for this book, but it represents an average. If I could, I would give the pigeons' part four stars for originality and sheer fun, and the Murray and friends story two stars for unfulfilled potential.




Rating:
Summary: At least it's different...
Review: 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...