Brenda Lee Browne is a British journalist and writer with Antiguan roots. Her short stories and poems can be found in journals in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean. Her novella, London Rocks (93 pages), is her first and was published by Hansib Publication Limited, in London, 2018.
The central character in London Rocks is Dante Brooks, a black British youth of Caribbean heritage, who is an MC. His world revolves around the music and party scene in London between the late 1970s-early 1980s, the same period reggae music began to infiltrate the British music scene and changed it forever.
The socio-cultural environment, set in the past, is reminiscent of present-day London and some large cities in the UK where some young men run in groups or in gangs and loyalty to their leaders are paramount. Then, like today, any perception of an offense against a group could result in death by knifing.
The reader is immediately thrown into Dante’s fast-living MC world, where sound men “open sets with…soul tunes—imports, jazz-funk, and a little Brit soul sound…and reggae grooves so tight they changed the air and made ravers want to take on the world, the police, the Babylon system. Then toasters take charge … chants led by Dante…speak of war on the streets, the SUS laws, the need for justice for those who died in the police stations…Africa…the Ratasfarian faith (p.6).” Music serves as a unifying force in an environment of social repression and is a form of non-violent rebellion.
Dante’s crew, which consists of sound men, toasters, MC’s with catchy lyrics and great sound systems, is led by Darcus, whose “legendary status as a sound man with a serious head for business made people love or hate him…a man whose temper is both quiet and deadly (p.7)”. Their world is music, female hangers-on (Beanies) and “weed.” Dante stands out because “he combines his C.S.E. grade 1 skills, and his love of music, to be a toaster, with lyrics that often leave his opponents speechless (p. 15).”
Dante’s world begins to crumble when his best friend, Del, a heavy weed smoker, commits suicide. The two youths had shared the fear of “becoming like their fathers working in some factory (p.16).” Dante is not one for sharing his feelings but Del’s demise leaves him racked with guilt “for not seeing his friend needed help (p.19).”
Then Darcus knifes Dante because he feels he has stepped out of line and sees him as a threat. Dante is without a crew, is stripped of their protective cocoon.
Having been abandoned by his friend, Del and with the scar on his neck serving as a constant reminder of Darcus’ betrayal, Dante loses his trust in people. He begins to carry a blade. “It is something he has to do; he has to let Darcus and all others know that he is a man, not afraid to face them, not afraid to die (p.47).” Rivalry in the music world and death by knifing remains an ever-present threat. The foggy world of weed-smoking temporarily soothes fear. His life’s focus is on writing lyrics, music, to rise as an MC in the club scene, and to take revenge against Darcus.
Besides his music, it is only his mother, Daphne and a daughter, Micah, whom he had as a teenager, that are bright lights in his challenging world. When Dante feels threatened, it is the women in his life (his mother, daughter and later, Marcia) who provide a psychological cushion. They are his guardian angels hovering in the background.
Other women around him (Beanies) are used for meaningless sex, until the irresistible Marcia, a writer, enters his world and his head. “She…talks about men who have fought great odds… (p.48). Their relationship becomes an on and off one.
As Dante rises in the world of music, film and writing, Marcia’s role in his life becomes more of a fixture. She slowly becomes the third woman who has the power to influence his life. “The beanies will now know that he is no longer on the market (p.76).”
Darcus makes a second failed attempt to put Dante in his place. Dante, at this moment, comes to realize the futility of this deadly rivalry… the need to be the only one who rules the music world. “Dante runs his fingers across the scar across his neck; is this how it will end for all of them? He shudders…what was it that they were all fighting so hard to hold onto? Who really cares if they are big men? The knife makes talking redundant, and a scar is a sign that you have survived a moment—not a war (p.74).” In the end, he accepts that he can only depend on himself and there a few individuals he can trust in the London that rocks his world.
What I found difficult, or maybe a little awkward in reading the novel was the present tense narrative. It took me a while to adjust to it and overcome my personal prejudice. Most novels are written in the past tense but there are no rules forbidding present tense writing. If anything, writing in the present tense is considered more challenging than writing in the past. So, bravo to Brenda Lee Browne for doing so.
This riveting novel enables the reader to see parallels with the London scene of today where the rivalry of misguided youth has become deadly and, for some, the value of life is non-existent. Is history repeating itself?
But what the reader takes away from London Rocks is that we can grow as individuals if we allow ourselves to think rationally about the direction we wish our lives to take. Significant is the need for moral support from those who have our interest at heart. Our youth, who live in challenging environments, must acknowledge that the death of a rival is not their greatest accomplishment.
Althea Romeo-Mark,
Caribbean writer, educator, author of The Nakedness of New (2018), If Only the Dust Would Settle (2009) and other poetry anthologies.
Brenda Lee Brown has appeared in Anthologies in Canada, the UK and USA - Anthologies: New Writing: Poetry & Prose – shoestring press – 2001 (UK) The Hoot & Holler of the Owls – Hurston/Wright Publications – 2003 (USA) So The Nailhead Bend, So the Story End – Volume 1 edited by Dr. Althea Prince – A Different Publisher – 2012 (Canada) WomanSpeak – A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women Volume 7 and Volume 8 – edited by Lynn Sweeting – 2015/2016 – WomanSpeak Books – Bahamas. She conducts the JustWriteAntigua annual workshop in Antigua, West Indies.
No comments:
Post a Comment