Gabriel Gbadamosi

This novel is narrated by Michael, a young boy living with his Nigerian father, Irish mother and siblings in Vauxhall, a former working class neighborhood in South London whose respectable council homes have become decrepit in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As the homes deteriorate so does the neighborhood, which is increasingly populated by poorer Londoners, homeless people, and immigrants of color who are denied housing in more desirable neighborhoods, and Michael's own life and that of his family also progressively unravel. The book takes the form of a series of events in Michael's life told through his eyes, in the rushed manner of a child excitedly telling his parents what happened in school that day. Unfortunately that style of storytelling, although an accurate reflection in the eyes of a young boy who doesn't understand what's happening to and around him, made it difficult for this reader to sympathize with the narrator, his family members, or the people in the neighborhood who entered and exited his life before I could get to know or understand them.

Vauxhall is presumably an autobiographical novel, as its author is also of mixed Nigerian and Irish heritage and grew up in impoverished South London neighborhoods. The book is most effective when it describes the racial slights that Michael and his siblings experience, particularly when he and his siblings are out in public with their mother, who walks separately from them to avoid harassment of them or herself by those who disapprove of her having a black husband. Michael's mother is the most sympathetic character in the book, as she keeps the family together despite her own poor health, external pressure from her relatives and neighbors, and an often indifferent and unromantic husband.

I found Vauxhall to be a mildly interesting but ultimately disappointing novel, as it could have been a far more interesting book had it been more reflective and less rushed, and if its potentially interesting characters had been better developed.… (més)