The Story of my Life

Set across the streets, clubs and cafes of an authentically depicted east London, the top layer of this book covers nine nocturnal hours in the life of Kenny Harris, a teenager struggling to avoid becoming complicit in the murder of the petty crook he has been commanded, after a beating, to bring before a psychopathic thug. The struggle is complicated by the fact that Mac, the thug, has befriended Kenny after saving him from a violent mugging. He has also involved Kenny in an act of retribution which has gone horribly wrong. Kenny’s conscience is additionally burdened with his having stolen his idealistic older brother’s girlfriend while the latter was at University. As Kenny seeks Mac’s target in sundry sordid corners, brother and girlfriend are seeking Kenny in an effort to free him from his toils.

These complexities are supplied in retrospect and reminiscence as the action accelerates towards a docklands showdown which leaves some of the many threads realistically frayed. I found the multi-temporal narrative a little clogged at times, and some of the characters suspiciously well-spoken. The sexual theme is done with appropriate restraint, but the violence with perhaps too much: Kenny thinks remarkably sharply for somebody who has just been kicked in the head, and a killing we witness seems mercifully quiet and unsmelly. In other respects, however, this is vivid and convincing writing about various types of seductive mess.