Jul 19

Jul 19 Who They Was

Author: Gabriel Krauze
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

An astonishing, visceral autobiographical novel about a young man straddling two cultures: the university where he is studying English Literature and the disregarded world of London gang warfare.

The unforgettable narrator of this compelling, thought-provoking debut goes by two names in his two worlds. At the university he attends, he’s Gabriel, a seemingly ordinary, partying student learning about morality at a distance. But in his life outside the classroom, he’s Snoopz, a hard living member of London’s gangs, well-acquainted with drugs, guns, stabbings, and robbery. Navigating these sides of himself, dealing with loving parents at the same time as treacherous, endangering friends and the looming threat of prison, he is forced to come to terms with who he really is and the life he's chosen for himself.

In a distinct, lyrical urban slang all his own, author Gabriel Krauze brings to vivid life the underworld of his city and the destructive impact of toxic masculinity. Who They Was is a disturbing yet tender and perspective-altering account of the thrill of violence and the trauma it leaves behind. It is the story of inner cities everywhere, and of the lost boys who must find themselves in their tower blocks.

TL;DR Review

Who They Was is autofiction that doesn’t make for an easy read, but it’s nothing if not unique — and effective in what it set out to do.

For you if: You won’t get thrown by reading in dialect, and you’re more interested in craft than plot.

Full Review

Wow, okay. I read Who They Was because it was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, which is great because I probably never would have picked it up on my own. It’s autofiction, a fictionalized version of the author’s life on the violent streets of London … while he earned a university degree on the side.

This book is definitely like nothing else I’ve read before. First of all, the prose is wildly impressive. It’s written in the style of language that Krauze and his characters speak every day, a sort of dialect all its own. It’s got incredible momentum, and Krauze is insanely skilled at dropping you right inside his head. The challenge of the book is that it’s almost entirely plotless, shapeless. It’s more of a stream of consciousness and long, somewhat repetitive account of his life than a novel. It’s also, as should be expected, violent and tough to read.

Interestingly, there were several people in book club who said that they liked the book and the writing but also didn’t finish it; they felt like they got what they could out of it in the first half or so. I did finish it, and I’m not sorry that I did, but I also see where they’re coming from. I’d say that this one is definitely worth picking up, but you can’t rush it. You can’t read this one in the three days leading up to book club (as we all learned, lol). It’s too much for that. It’s the kind of book that’s best read a little at a time over the course of a few weeks.