The Street

A comical look at life in Brixton, London, woven around a select cast of characters. Dada of Nigerian descent is a freelance writer for a magazine for “crazy” people. He’s just fallen in love with Nehushta, also of Nigerian descent, whose father Ossie has made TV and print news for coming out of a coma after fifteen years, a period he seemed to have spent in the land of dreams. Then there is Biodun a.k.a. The Heckler, Dada’s cousin who gave up on life when his boyfriend Andre left him via death and he found out he was HIV-positive, choosing to become a street bum harassing streetside preachers, much to the consternation of his mother who then arranges a “symbolic funeral” for him.

Towards the end we learn that it is not all jolly frivolity, there’s some serious issues at stake. Dada has to come to terms with Nehushta’s other lover being a female. And The Heckler finally decides to go back to his job with a software company, though still refusing to tell his mother about his HIV status.

Like in his other story I read years ago, the author appears still to —through Dada—question the existence of God.

June 11, 2015. Review initially written in 2005. Novel first published in 1999. Picture source: Yahoo (Images).