"Pigeon English" by Stephen Kelman.

So I am currently reading "Pigeon English" by Stephen Kelman and I'm hoping to finish it today (whilst keeping an eye on the rugby) but I can't help but notice the rise of fictional works with children as the eyepiece of violence. From Emma Donoghue's "Room" which was nominated for the Booker Prize last year, to earlier works such as "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. The presentation of violence, anger and rape in some cases seen through the eyes of "innocents" is oddly jarring. What it gives the reader is a view of the violent truth through the eyes of children who do not fully understand what is going on around them.  As a result the reader is having to doubly interpret what these fictional children are seeing. By not always knowing the truth behind what they are narrating they mistake the actions of others, but still inform the reader that there is something happening. This is perhaps most prominently shown through Lenny, the child narrator in "Cracking India" by Bapsi Sidhwa. The reader is constantly told about Lenny's inability to lie, setting her up as a reliable narrator, but one who does not understand what she is really narrating. As a result the reader has to understand what she is saying to us through her imagination and then interpret it into what we readers know as the truth. For the narrator of "Pigeon English", Harrison is acting as an informal interpreter for the reader, explaining all the various wars, signs and words so that we can understand what he is saying to us, but it also seems at times as is he is providing an explanation for himself. As a boy from Ghana, he is having to work at living in England and understanding the ways of the people around him. Not always successful, he provides enough information so that the reader knows enough of what is going on and we discover the murderer through Harrison's eyes. Sometimes a little slow, I find myself willing Harrison to notice what's really going on. A similar feeling I had when reading "Room" where I just wanted to Jack and to realise the truth of his situation, but I think that is what makes child narrator's so special to novels that are dealing with violent topics. They can see, but to a degree not interpret what they are seeing which makes them amazingly resilient to the outside world, particularly shown through Jack who manages to adapt with surprising quickness as a result of his innocent view of the world.
With a few chapters left of "Pigeon English" I am struggling to get along with Harrison as much as I did with Jack in Donoghue's "Room", but I think the effect is very similar. The resilience of these fictional children at such a young age contrasts their innocence with the brutalities they are presented with. I can see why "Pigeon English" is on the Waterstone's Eleven and has already made such a splash. Definitely one to watch when it is released on the 7th March this year.