Junglist
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Back in print after more than twenty years, this cult classic of underground British fiction tells the story of young Black men coming of age among the raves and jungle music of London in the 1990s.
Layered with poetic verse, prose and humour, this cult classic of underground British fiction documents the rollercoaster ride of a weekend spent raving during Jungle’s cultural takeover in the summer of 1994. Jungle, with its booming basslines and Jamaican patois, burst from the pirate radio stations and mixtapes into cavernous clubs, pulling a generation of Black British ravers with it.
Originally written as a way to document street culture as it became a feature of London, charting a time when working-class kids, both Black and white, merged to dance as "one family", Junglist is both a testament to Black British sound system culture and a rawthentic account of inner-city life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This fascinating reissue of a 1995 novel by two young music fans, whose real names are Andrew Green and Eddie Otchere, is "reputed to be the most stolen book in the London prison system," according to an introduction from writer Sukhdev Sandhu. It follows four Black Londoners—Meth, Biggie, Q, and Craig—over a meandering summer weekend, to the beat of jungle music and lots of weed. There is musicality in the language: "walking bouncy, and slightly pimp limpish," and a practically erotic description of a vinyl record. The narrative is thin, more mood than story, but the authors vividly describe the atmosphere. The freedom of dancing in a club or at a house party expresses the inchoate yearning of the characters, who are often harassed by the police. They reflect on race and colorism ("as if you can tell how Black a person is just by looking at their complexion. It is just so dishonest, so fucking dishonest.... Why the eternal question: Am I dark enough? I'm too light," Biggie reflects) and ruminate on women they've lost. A bitter tone pulsates like a bassline throughout, ending with an elegiac burst of stream of consciousness. Crude but never dull, this manages to sublimate its characters' youthful energy and frustrations into art.
