The Housing Lark
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
'Irreverent, spirited ... a seriously funny novel' New York Review of Books
Sitting in his cramped basement room in Brixton, Battersby dreams of money, women, a T-bone steak - and a place to call his own. So he and a group of friends decide to save up and buy a house together. But amid grasping landlords, the temptations of spending money and the less-than-welcoming attitude of the Mother Country, can this motley group of hustlers and schemers, Trinidadians and Jamaicans, men and women make their dreams a reality?
'Selvon's meticulously observed narratives of displaced Londoners' lives created a template for how to write about migrant, and postmigrant, London for countless writers who have followed in his wake, including Hanif Kureishi and Zadie Smith' Caryl Phillips
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this vibrant comic novel from Selvon (1923 1994), set in 1960s London, readers are introduced to an eclectic cast of West Indian characters. Battersby, Gallows, Poor, Henry Calypso, and others fight to scrape out a meager life for themselves in the segregated slums of London. Living several to a room while working menial jobs, these men and women share dreams, hopes, and a need for a place of their own. Fighting an often racist and exploitative rental housing market, the motley crew decides to save for a house together. This becomes the impetus of the story as readers follow these men and women through obstacles both humorous and poignant. Can they resist temptations like gambling, smoking, and drinking to save money? Can they trust each other, and, specifically, Battersby to function as group treasurer and hold their meager savings? (They can't.) Through rich Caribbean dialects and an episodic narrative, Selvon explores issues of upward mobility and racism, and the chasm between dreams and brutal reality. This is a unique, gritty, and memorable portrait of the large Caribbean immigrant population in urban 1960s and '70s England.
