The London Pigeon Wars

It almost seems as though there are several different books about the same people competing for space within the covers of "The London Pigeon Wars." The first is a magical-realism sort of story about some London pigeons who develop consciousness, and consequently some unappealling human clannishness and territoriality (they start a civil war of sorts). This bit is told by the eyes of one narrator, one of the newly-alert pigeons. The second is a Friends/Big-Chill sort of book about a small group of London "thirtysomethings" trying to make sense of their lives and relationships. The third is a kind of thriller - a bank robbery, a long con or two or three, and a murder are involved. Each of these strands is interesting in itself, and there are both well-written small bits (funny individual scenes, vivid descriptions of particular characters, etc.) and some plot twists that are genuinely surprising. But I never got over the feeling that the bits of the book were fighting over the space, the way the pigeons fought over London, and the threads never really came together the way I had hoped. Nevertheless I will look forward to Neate's next book.

Readers will probably remember The London Pigeon Wars for the fun author Patrick Neate has with word play. He's invented a whole new parallel language for his group of irascible, world-weary birds that decide to launch a war over the battle scarred, grey skies of London. But the ravaged and despoiled pigeons are only part of the story: Neate is at his best when he explores the lives of eight young "twirtysomethings," young, urban groovers who are "not all rich or powerful or happy, but have starring roles in the imagined movies of their own lives." Neate's protagonists certainly know how to maneuver around London - they're without doubt totally adept at chewing on the city, as they "pick it clean like jackals, and gorge on its waste like pigeons." The London Pigeon Wars is certainly an original, well-written, and clever novel. It combines the primeval and macabre with a shadowy, dark humor and contemporary metaphor. Neate takes us on an inventive journey through the dark underbelly of one of the world's most famous cities, told from the perspective of both humans and pigeons. Neate examines the nature of class, relationships and the chaos of life as Emma, Tom, Tariq, Karen, Kwesi, Freya, Ami, and the "social terrorist" Murray try to make sense of the world and obtain meaning out of their muddled, frenzied, and mixed-up lives. Murray has returned to his group of friends after ten years. He wants to pull his mates' lives out of the London doldrums by suggesting they rob a bank for kicks. When they were at university together, Murray, a sociopath by nature, who addresses everyone as "china" and is a frenetic eater of chicken, has made a career of performing all kinds jokes on people, something that his loyal friends have coined as "Murray-fun." On his return, however, his friends aren't as enthusiastic for his antics as they used to be, so Murray tries to help them reconnect with life in other ways. Murray's return is also linked to the pigeon wars, which is told through the voice of an old pigeon named Ravenscourt. Ravenscourt narrates the story of the war initiated by an event known as "Trafalgar," where the future leaders of two pigeon armies tussle over the remnants of Murray's discarded box of KFC. The old bird's speeches appear as short interludes between chapters of the principal narrative. Employing the voice of Ravenscourt, Neate instills the playfulness and the charm of London street vernacular into the deliberations. The avian language is slick and inventive, and it may take readers a while to grasp the meaning of many of the words: the prose is littered with references to "geez" (dudes), "coochies" (ladies), "peepnicks" (those silly humans), and "squirms" (worms). Neate's powers of contemporary social observation are formidable. And he portrays a London where authenticity has become ever more meaningless and where "politics, race and class are less statements of identity than descriptions of the way you choose to accessorize.

Karen Miller, ten years out of college, is working for the city of London Transit Committee when she is assigned to become the "pigeon czar." The city's pigeons have divided into two warring factions, attacking each other in flight, flying into apartment buildings, and breaking windshields of BMWs when they plummet dead from the skies. In dual, compelling narratives, Patrick Neate reveals the progress of these pigeon wars, told from the point of view of Ravenscourt, a pigeon soldier supporting Gunnersbury, and from the perspective of Karen and six of her friends, ten years after college. Skewering the aimlessness of these "twirty-somethings," who are so busy looking at the ground that they ignore the world above them, he reveals them to be much like the pigeons, living in the instant, lacking direction and purpose, reacting rather than thinking, and often fighting. When the mysterious Murray, a Mephistophelean friend from college, arrives in town, he exerts the same vibrant spell on his friends as he did in the past, when he was famous for "Murray-fun," or, perhaps, "social terrorism." When he suggests his latest idea, all are ready for a change. Karen is in the midst of a bad love affair. Freya Franklin, a hat designer, is struggling with a new business. Tom Dare, an unhappy teacher, has had affairs with both Karen and Freya. Emma, a new mother suffering from some sort of wasting disease, is married to Tariq, whose business has failed. Kwesi, a poet of "ghetto chic" gives readings in which his delivery, manner, and accent are worse than his poetry, and Ami is a TV weather-girl. The reader soon observes Murray's growing power as he plans his newest "fun," which requires "enough" guns. Meanwhile, the pigeons are at war, sabotaging each other, struggling to capture the "Remnant of Content," and interacting with the "peepniks" (people) and particularly with Murray, whom they call "Mishap." Neate's use of language is fascinating and often "cute," especially in the pigeon narratives. "Slowtion," "flixtures," and "nobirdy," for example, are obvious elisions which contribute to a different language for the pigeons, who also refer to "coochies," "geezes," and "squibs," the meanings obvious through context. Neate, with a fondness for philosophy, puts his characters (and pigeons) into the wider context of the "time before time," wondering if "content is really the height of my dreams, and will I ever even dream again?" As the wars wind down and the fate of Murray hangs in the balance, Neate requires the reader to think, even as he entertains and satirizes the "society" in which both peepniks and pigeons operate. Mary Whipple