‘This one is about Larry’
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a great fan of Biko’s writing. I used to avidly follow his blog, always stayed updated on the latest post and always read his articles in True Love and in the Saturday Magazine in the Nation newspaper… kidogo I started buying Msafiri magazines just because he is/was the editor there – when I stan for someone I stan hard as you can see. I eventually slowed down on the blog reading because life caught up with me, I haven’t touched or even seen a True Love magazine anywhere this year (my salon is clearly slacking) and I think he may have stopped contributing there and I only read the newspaper when I come across one. I still read the blog from time to time though. I say all this to say that I’m a fan, always have been and even after this review, I still will be… I just won’t be purchasing another book written by him anytime soon.
Before the Biko cavalry comes for me – hear me out please. This book, all 167 pages of it is something that I was beyond excited to get my hands on. You recall I had said earlier this year that I was not buying anymore books in 2018 to make room to read the numerous ones I already have? Well I made an exception for this book, because it is written by a man whose writing I have admired for my entire adult life. I had to make an exception.
The storyline in this book though meh and almost predictable, started out quite well. We get a feel of the few characters including the main character Larry ( who I feel is Biko himself but I digress…), his family, his conquests and lack thereof, a few extras here and there and somehow an Artisan and his family come in and that’s where he lost me. The chapter on the Artisan and his wife and child just appeared out of nowhere, I thought I had missed something and even went back a chapter to make sure. Maybe it’s just me who feels that way but I feel their entry into the story could have been done better.
Now dealing with two different sets of characters, you’d think the story would have more depth but no… still nothing, and I think this is mostly due to the narrator’s voice sounding exactly the same in all settings. Biko has a distinct way in which he writes or speaks life into a story. In this story, everyone sounds like they were all sitting in one room, listening to a table read read by one person – and this isn’t even a script. I have to be honest, I really struggled to finish reading this book, which I never thought would happen with a Biko production at all, neither did I think it would happen with a book this small. I was warned not to take breaks while reading this or I’ll quickly lose interest but me and my need to watch TV shows and just live life, decided nah… I’ll stop for a while. Bad idea. I had to push myself to complete this about a week ago to get this review out and also just to be done. The slow pace of the storyline was starting to annoy me.
Some good take-aways I can say though – his depiction of alcoholism and the gradual progression into sheer lack of a will to live is spot on and though I would have liked it fleshed out more, especially when Larry checks into rehab, I appreciate his efforts in showing us that. Another pro would be the last few chapters, the connection between Larry and the Artisan’s daughter, between Larry’s mum and the Artisan (I finally understood why the description at the back mentioned wheelbarrows) and that general flow of a heart-gripping story that ended somewhat quite suddenly… I enjoyed that and this is the Biko writing style I know and love. Sure it can’t be tragedy and suspense all the time but clearly humorous writing within a book is much harder for him than it is in his majority hilarious articles.
Writing a book is not easy and it isn’t for everyone, kudos to him for giving it a go and doing a somewhat not half bad a job compared to others. I think he deserves another chance to wow us but shouldn’t rush to get something out. Take your time Biko, we as your loyal readers will be here ready and waiting to give you all our coins for a hopefully better written, better narrated and better developed book.
Rating: 5/10
Writers Haven 