Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Some Kind of Black by Diran Adebayo Some kind of black diran adebayo. The difficulty a novel like this has is that its instantly lauded and pigeonholed by well-meaning London literary types. Anything that describes an ethnic life beyond their ken which is written well becomes a victim of its own success. I think the author survived the patronising quite well. All he did was write about real life in a very real way. And thats what I found fairly interesting about it. The white characters behave towards the protagonist in a fairly ignorant and predictable way, and the London boy in him finds it difficult to let go of his roots. and some of his roots want to strangle him. *Bloke. Yes, Im allowed to say bloke because Im white British and using my own patois to add colour to this review. See what I did there? Oni Suru. Diran Adebayo. He read Law at Oxford University and worked as a journalist on the London newspaper The Voice , before working in television as a researcher and assistant producer. The prize included a publishing contract with London publishers Virago, which published the book in The book centres on Dele, a young black student living in Britain, and his attempt to reconcile his experiences at university in Oxford, his Nigerian roots and his exploits in urban London, where he explores the music scene, experiments with drugs and becomes involved in black activism after his sister is arrested. Diran Adebayo is currently at work on a screenplay, Burnt , for FilmFour, and his third novel. He lives in London. The publication of Some Kind of Black , Adebayo's multi-award-winning debut novel signals the arrival of a significant new literary talent on the London scene. Adebayo's stylish, hedonistic prose is tempered by a sensitive, self-critical intelligence that stops it growing tired, or superficial. Please sign in to write a review. If you have changed your email address then contact us and we will update your details. We have recently updated our Privacy Policy. The site uses cookies to offer you a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you accept our Cookie Policy, you can change your settings at any time. In stock online Usually dispatched within 24 hours. Quantity Add to basket. Navigation menu. Oludiran "Diran" Adebayo FRSL born 30 August is a British novelist, cultural critic and academic [1] best known for his stylish, inventive tales of London and the lives of African diasporans. His work has been characterised by its interest in multiple cultural identities, subcultures, and its distinctive, "musical" use of language. His work has won many awards and wide acclaim from critics. His fans include the writer Zadie Smith , who has praised him for his "humanness", [2] arguing that he is one of a few English writers who "trade in both knowledge and feeling". Born Oludiran Adebayo in London in , to Nigerian parents, [5] Adebayo won a major scholarship when he was 12 to Malvern College , where he boarded as an adolescent, [6] and is an Oxford University Law graduate. His follow-up, the fable My Once Upon A Time , set in a near-future London-like western city, fused noir with Yoruba folklore to striking effect, and solidified his reputation as a groundbreaker. Diran Adebayo has been hailed as one of the most original literary talents of his generation. Some Kind of Black tells the story of an Oxford history graduate called Dele, who also happens to be a street - smart black man. Dele and his sister Dapo's parents are Nigerian and very traditional in their attitudes and outlook. Dele glides through London, switching and shifting between African and Caribbean communities, and despite his Nigerian background, his voice is undoubtedly and authentically that of a Londoner. As Dele dissects the different attitudes to race and class, Adebayo makes observations in a sharp and original way, writing in a variety of convincing voices - Jamaican, Nigerian and South London. At the beginning of Some Kind of Black, Dele and his friend Concrete- so named because of his talent for head-butting - play a game of blackjack. Having not been able to agree on the rules of the game, the two decide to play by the Queensberry rules in north London and by Concrete's "Concrete madness" in the south. In the course of the game, Dele discovers that Concrete has "slipped in some new piece of slyness", symbolic of the divisions in the black community. It's these divisions which are explored in this accomplished first novel, winner of the Saga prize for unpublished black British authors. Diran Adebayo draws on his experiences as a black Oxford graduate, born and bred in London but of Nigerian descent. Dele, Adebayo's fictional alter ego, indulges in a summer of sex, smokes and substances of an increasingly potent order - first in Oxford and then in London. Dele "clocks" and "scopes" the female populations of Oxford and Brixton, working his way through Helena white and horsey , Cheryl "his side of coffee-coloured" , and Andria, a white girl with a Jamaican accent who deals in "GBH" and animal tranquillisers. Diran Adebayo. He read Law at Oxford University and worked as a journalist on the London newspaper The Voice , before working in television as a researcher and assistant producer. The manuscript of his novel Some Kind of Black won the inaugural Saga Prize, set up by the actress and novelist Marsha Hunt for black British writers. The prize included a publishing contract with London publishers Virago, which published the book in 1996. The book centres on Dele, a young black student living in Britain, and his attempt to reconcile his experiences at university in Oxford, his Nigerian roots and his exploits in urban London, where he explores the music scene, experiments with drugs and becomes involved in black activism after his sister is arrested. The book also won the Author's Club Best Novel of the Year award, a Betty Trask Award and a Writers' Guild Award (New Writer of the Year) in 1996. His second novel, My Once Upon a Time (2000), is a modern day fable set in London's near future. In 2006, Adebayo was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has also contributed to Underwords: The Hidden City (2005), the Book Trust London Short Story Competition Anthology. His recent work includes the essay 'The Footman's New Clothes' in Locating African European Studies (2019). Diran Adebayo is currently at work on a screenplay, Burnt , for FilmFour, and his third novel, while also lecturing in creative writing at Kingston University. He lives in London. Critical perspective. The publication of Some Kind of Black (1996), Adebayo's multi-award-winning debut novel signals the arrival of a significant new literary talent on the London scene. Adebayo's stylish, hedonistic prose is tempered by a sensitive, self-critical intelligence that stops it growing tired, or superficial. His sharp eye for current trends and fashions - speech patterns, dress, drugs, music, turns of phrase - make him what one critic calls "the leading writer of the Now Generation". Adebayo's perceptive insights on British and Black British contemporary culture have also earned him a reputation as an insightful journalist, as his 12 page article on race in Britain for The Observer (25 November 2001) testifies. Yet for all its 'street-wise' rhetoric, Adebayo's fiction is ultimately more interesting for the way in which it rejects the latest fads and fashions. If in recent years, Black has become a fashionable commodity (witness the proliferation of 'ethnic' accessories on the white European body) then Adebayo's Some Kind of Black , is on one level a parody and critique of that trend. As the title suggests, this text is an experimentation with and interrogation of what it means to be Black, rather than an attempt to buy into or market a true, authentic Blackness. Some Kind of Black is a semi-autobiographical tale, a narrative that fizzes with energy. It tells the story of Dele, a history undergraduate who moves back and forth between Oxford and London in search of sex, parties and good times. Dele's character represents a break with the archetypal 'victim' of early Black fiction. Exploiting his ethnicity in order to take advantage of his white middle-class peers, Dele is presented performing various roles, "donning different hats to see how they fitted". Beneath the surface excesses of this street-smart, care free narrator however, is a more complex character. For all his machismo and posturing, Dele is a vulnerable figure, who is both concerned about the welfare of his sickle cell suffering sister (Dapo) and who himself suffers at the hands of a violent father. When Dapo falls into a coma while in police custody (following the arrest of Dele, Dapo and friend Concrete), the protagonist is forced to assess the relationship between the liberatory role-playing in which he has been indulging and a more militant Black politics. Adebayo's second novel, My Once Upon a Time (2000), is a more ambitious, inventive, polished piece of work than Some Kind of Black . Where the plot of the first book has a tendency to loose direction, My Once Upon a Time is a tightly structured text that captures the reader with its confident and skilful deployment of suspense. Working within, while at the same time extending and subverting the conventions of the thriller genre, My Once Upon a Time (again, the title provides the reader with a significant clue) is a self-reflexive narrative, a tale about telling tales.