Piercingly topical with Windrush as a backdrop This Lovely City captures the mood and sensations of a post war South London. The title holds an ambiguity that leaves its reader pondering sarcasm or sincerity but this reader felt it was a little of both. Marvellously evocative and hard to believe that this is a debut novel the reader is immediately swept into this jazz soaked arena of racial tension.
Already identified by The Guardian as one of the ten best debut novelists of 2020 Louise Hare has avoided eloquently the trap of bitterness and anger that could so easily accompany these characters and what they endure in the book. She has skilfully woven a thread of hope and optimism throughout the rich fabric of her narrative mirroring the emotions surely felt initially by the embarkees of HMT Empire Windrush.
Nestling within the broader issues dealt with in the novel is something of a murder mystery where, it seems, the police feel that few are beyond suspicion and will stop at nothing to reach an arrest. Several red herrings are thrown their way and ours but the truth remains elusive until secrets are divulged towards the end of the book. But I didn’t feel the murder aspect was intended as the dominant feature of the novel. It seems to be a device used to explore the racial attitudes of the time.
Whenever jazz is allowed to add its syncopated notes to a story you sense a rhythm and a beat that often suggests a metaphor for life. It’s subtle here and works as a soundtrack of words when Lawrie and the band plays. Something of a leitmotiv for crucial events and moods in the story. And jazz is a musical genre that encourages improvisation, musicians understanding each other implicitly. Here that serves as a metaphor for community which is a very strong features of this fiction.
Lawrie and Evie are the two main characters. Young, hopeful, yet endowed with a wisdom that allows the reader to marvel at their dignity in the face of all the obstacles life is throwing at them. So as well as being a murder mystery this is also a touching and poignant love story. The path of true love never does run smooth to use a well oiled cliche and this particular path winds and weaves this way and that.
The end of the book is conclusive and redemptive. It is an historical work so it is not hard to examine it within the context of today’s attitudes and to consider how much progress we have made as a society. Of course it can be enjoyed simply as a story without recourse to deeper scrutiny but I, personally, feel the book demands we think and consider.
My thanks to Harper Collins and HQ stories for both a copy of this book and an opportunity to participate in the blog tour. My opinion is but one. Please explore what my blogging colleagues feel abut this impressive debut.
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