I loved everything about the novella ‘Ishmael Toffee’ (US). Was drawn in by the voice and the subject
immediately.
Ishmael’s just out of prison. He’s a killer who suddenly tired of
killing. Whilst watching his back in the
cells, he discovered a new freedom in the form of gardening, a new connection
with the earth and the way things might be.
He’s hard, poor and covered in tattoos.
His rehabilitation is to be encouraged by work – a job in
the garden of a rich, white man in the luxurious settings of a mightily secure
house where only the help has colour to their skin.
There’s a snake in the garden, mind. Family life is not all it should be. Ishmael knows that what’s happening is wrong,
but he also knows that trying to help will get him in to no end of
trouble. It’s a question of whether the
old or the new Ishmael is going to show up and I’m not going to tell you how it
shapes up.
It’s a fantastic piece of fiction which deals with the
injustices of poverty, the inequities of the world, the stark realities of life
and death. The prose is sharp and
clinical, yet there’s a heart beating through it all the way along, a hope that
warmth and fairness might rise above the setting and the situation no matter
how farfetched that seems at times. It
does get tough – gruelling material at which the writer shows his class instead
of flinching away.
By year’s end, this book is going to shine out as one of my
favourites. There’s no doubt about it.
Very highly recommended.
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