Escaping Crime-Ridden Bristol Neighborhood

An Olive Grove in Ends is a remarkable debut novel that excels in its character-driven storytelling and thematic depth. The strengths of the book lie in McKenzie’s authentic portrayal of his characters' struggles and the vivid depiction of the community they inhabit. However, some might find the gritty realism and intense subject matter challenging. Overall, it is a powerful and thought-provoking read that offers a rare glimpse into a world often overlooked in contemporary literature.

This was an excellent debut with descriptions so vivid that you feel like you are on the streets of Bristol right along with the characters. Often gritty and heartbreaking, showing how nearly impossible it is to break cycles of generational poverty, but there are also lovely celebrations of family and culture throughout.

It took me a second to get into the Jamaican-English format of the dialogue, but otherwise loved this gritty redemption story.

I love James Baldwin, so comparisons to the great African-American author piqued my interest in this novel. There were comparisons to Zadie Smith as well, and so I came into this expecting a wild lyrical ride with depth of imagination, vivid characterizations, and in-the-know depictions of life for black folk. Moses McKenzie didn't disappoint. There's shades of IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK in the love story between Sayon and Shona, the girl Sayon has loved since...forever. Desperate to escape the Ends, a rough neighborhood in Bristol, and afford Shona the life she deserves, Sayon resorts to dealing drugs with his hot-tempered cousin, Cuba. Surprisingly, Sayon is on the verge of escaping this life when his plans are completely upended by an act of violence. This is powerful and real and imaginative in equal measures. McKenzie is a name to watch. I look forward to his next foray. Highly recommended.

WHOA! This novel is an amazing coming of age story about dreams, values, love, family, organized religion, crime and figuring things out for yourself against many differing backdrops and options. The Ends is a neighborhood in Bristol, UK. The first thing you see after the table of contents is the Hughes family tree: Sayron is the son of Erica Hughes Stewart, who ditched her maiden name and family totally when she married a preacher and then later ditched her son because he did not measure up to his parents' rigid expectations.. The family is notorious, with many who can claim one or more jail stays and they are fiercely close and protective of one another. Like much of the extended family, "Say" wound up living with Nanny, the Hughes matriarch. She will support every one of them no matter what they do. A very few members of the family moved on to become wage earners in the traditional sense. Say has a dream, going back to his childhood, of saving enough money to buy a large house with beautiful grounds that sits in not far from his rough and tumble home. One of his earliest memories was walking there with his mother.

Say's best friend is his cousin Cuba, who the family calls Midnight because of his dark dark skin. Cuba is a year behind Say in school. Say excels in school and connects in his early years with Shona and Elia two girls who are also exceptional students. Shona's father Lyle is a preacher and Elia is Muslim. Cuba is always in trouble, does poorly in school and eventually quits, but he becomes a very successful drug lord. When we first meet Say, he is dealing drugs for Cuba,, trying to save money to buy his dream property. He has known Shona since elementary school. They are soulmates. Shona is making headway in the business side of the music industry. Elia has married Say's cousin Hakim and they run a popular bakery. He has a cousin Winnie, addicted to crack, who lives on the steps of Lyle's church, an uncle Michael, who has an intellectual disability, and maybe is dangerous, Uncles and older cousins who perpetually play cards in Nanny's back yard, a couple of three year old boys who are his cousin Jamaal's kids to two different women and the rest of the family who pop up continuously throughout the story, with back stories and expectations that those in the money will share and they do.

What is simultaneously amazing and difficult about McKenzie's writing is that much of the dialogue is laden with Jamaican and Somali patois, some that becomes clear in context and some that I could only guess at. Once I felt I'd figured out as much as I could, e.g. that "Wagwan" means, "What's going on?" and "Enuh" means "you know" and that the word, "man" is often used when someone is talking about him/herself, I ran out of luck with a number of words that were used a lot. And, glory be: The Internet has them. One of my favorites was the phrase, "He kissed his teeth," which I assumed was a tongue click or tch. Instead, it's a unique Jamaican way of expressing disapproval that's hard to describe or reproduce but can be found on Internet videos. Part hiss, part pursed lips, part little whistle. Since the same words unfamiliar to many readers are used frequently, I recommend looking them up early and you won't ever be distracted by them again, because the dialogue in this book is one of it's best features and instead of being stuck on the patois, it's easy to learn the words and read it fluidly.

As Say navigates through his world of good and evil, the prospect of losing Shona and confusion about what matters most, the story remains compelling, never boring. McKenzie was only 23 when this debut novel was published. I hope this means his gift will keep us up at night through many more characters, some extra new words in our lexicons and stories you want to follow and follow and follow. Highly, highly recommend.

A young man has dreams of buying a house at the top of a "bad" part of Bristol, rapidly being gentrified, where he has just committed a murder, and ostensibly, just seen one the following day-- causing events, and his dreams, to spiral beyond his control.

Scenes digress into his past as he encounters members of the neighborhood, contextualizing as he moves through areas. It's great at this aspect of the story. With the premise and the arc being interesting. I also think the dialogue is particularly strong. Unfortunately, the rest of the writing style in this is too grating for me to contend with, though. If I hadn't picked this up under the context of reading Booker-eligible nominations, maybe I'd have had lower expectations too. The flow is really awkward and, worse, vaciliates often. This is also accentuated by how the paragraphs are formatted. Not enough attention is given to really quite pivotal moments, yet digresses into granular specifics for the innocuous. Smilies are really incongruent with what is occurring on the page but likened to cultural aspects of the protagonist and community. I can see why this is happening yet it takes me out of the fiction a lot of the time when compounded with the other issues. I also just did not see where this was going with the faith angle right up until the point of DNF, around 25%. That's a long time to have bible quotes and talk of pastors and lead up to, presumably, the main inciting incident (which could have been three or four other events but aren't because they're all but eschewed).

In short: it reads very well for a debut novel from a young person. It is not, I think, particularly well written for a literary book being considered against others for a prize. But I see many people really like it, so it may just be down to something as simple as taste pertaining to writing styles. I'd place it as an upmarket release--not quite literary, certainly not commercial fiction. It's got a lot of votes for Booker-eligible hopefuls, though.

As a reader you spend this book rooting for Santon and hoping, that despite all the odds, he and his love make it out of the dangerous world they are caught up in again and find peace. The characters are engaging and the setting plays as big a role as any character and the langue, spoken and unspoken, of the place makes the book shine even brighter. A powerful new voice, the author is only 23! , and I am excited to read more from him!

I didn’t care for this one. It’s set in a hard, violent place, a neighbourhood in Bristol that the locals call “Ends” (if that helps you get a handle on the title), home to Jamaican immigrants who came in starting in the 1950s and Somalis in the 1990s. There are clashes between the groups, based on religion and just because, and between neighbourhoods. Sayon, our anti-hero, is a member of the large Hughes family, which is well known to police and behind a lot of the crime in the area. He’s in love with Shona, has been since grade school, and she loves him too in spite of his family and his own less than squeaky clean record. Sayon wants a better life with Shona, and the only way he thinks he can earn the kind of money they’ll need to get away, as he sees it, is to deal drugs for his cousin Cuba. He knows street life is grim—there are knives and guns everywhere—though he seems to pretty easily dismiss his responsibility for the lives blighted by the heroin and crack they’re selling, including his cousin Winnie. (“If we don’t sell it to them, they’ll just buy it from someone else.”) Then, one night, in defending his cousin Cuba, he knifes someone to death. He’s later learns he was seen by three witnesses, and though none seems ready (yet) to inform on him, the risk is there. Blackmail soon enters the picture, and he knows that if Shona learns he’s killed, that will be it for them.

The Jamaican patois is almost impenetrably thick; it was at times a real struggle for me to understand. And I just couldn’t get attached to any of the characters, even the ones I think we’re meant to care about, chiefly Sayon. He’s presented as bright, with a dream for a better life, but to me he’s pretty much just a thug until the day he moves into the big leagues by becoming a murderer. I think we’re meant to see that the environment was such that Sayon had no real choices other than those he made, and that he killed a man in defence of a cousin who was more like a brother to him—so really not his fault, right? Just not buying any of it.

A gritty coming-of-age story set in current-day Bristol, England.
Moses McKenzie's debut novel, An Olive Grove in Ends, revolves around Sayon, a young man of Jamaican heritage who lives with his large extended family in a poverty-stricken area of Bristol, England. For as long as he can remember, he's been obsessed with a nearby mansion — the "house-atop-the-hill" — and he fantasizes about the day he'll buy it and move in with the love of his life, Shona. To make the dream a reality he needs money, and he goes about acquiring cash through the only avenue he feels is open to him: selling heroin. His cousins are more than happy to welcome him into the trade, and he starts dealing drugs. When Shona's father witnesses him committing a crime, Sayon is forced to choose between what he sees as his only path forward and the girl he knows he is meant to be with.

McKenzie has created a remarkably sympathetic protagonist in Sayon. As he narrates his story, we quickly realize he's exceptional, born for better things than his circumstances might allow — something his relatives readily acknowledge. While they're content with their lawless lifestyle, by and large, he's seen as the only one in his family who might make it out of a life that "either ends in prison or six feet in the ground." In spite of his many wrongdoings, we root for him to break out of the "family business," win the girl and live a joyous, ideally crime-free life. It speaks volumes about the author's skill that he can make such a deeply flawed character so completely likeable.

There are a number of factors that influence Sayon's choices, all of which the author interweaves seamlessly, creating a complex picture of the challenges a young man born in his socioeconomic strata might face. The idea of a tight-knit extended family is key to the novel. With just a few exceptions, everyone that surrounds Sayon is a relative; they support and shield each other, even when they disagree or disapprove of something. Race and class play significant roles, as Sayon's mostly Black neighborhood becomes subject to gradual gentrification. The financial issues, limited opportunities and easy availability of drugs are major themes, as is the discussion of the role religion can play in one's life — for good or for ill.

Some readers may struggle with the messages this novel sends. There are few repercussions for the lawless behavior exhibited throughout the book. The author poses controversial questions about selling drugs, asking if it's really any worse than alcohol sales, or "chicken shops [that meet] the demands of the obese." Elsewhere Sayon states, "Some of the hardest-working people I knew sold drugs." Life is cheap, with casual murders occurring regularly and mostly without remorse. Christianity takes a beating, too; while in church considering the concept of "God's will," Sayon refers to Jesus as a "puppeteer…deftly moving our strings," and the Christian leaders in his life are shown to be callous hypocrites. Indeed, the author condemns these individuals far more than he does the murderers and drug dealers he depicts. Although I feel a bit uneasy with the author's point of view on these subjects, I love his honesty about them. It adds to the book's authenticity, and in the end, this is more of a plus than a minus.

The narrative sections are beautifully written ("I spent the second half of Year 7 in a wonderful haze. A sepia montage with little dialogue and a soundtrack provided by Earth, Wind and Fire."). However, the dialogue may be difficult to decipher for readers not familiar with Jamaican, Somalian and British slang (e.g., "Who im deh wid?" "Mi av ahh bone fi pick wid im, enuh"). Sometimes the context clarifies what the characters are discussing, but more often than not there's no indication, and sometimes following these conversations is integral to understanding the plot. I found that somewhere around the midpoint of the book I'd adjusted, but it was a fairly large hurdle to overcome at first. Struggling with these passages interrupted the book's flow and slowed the overall reading experience.

Although the above-mentioned concerns may be a barrier for some, I did really enjoy An Olive Grove in Ends. I found it to be wholly original, and Sayon a unique and fascinating narrator. The fact that it's McKenzie's first novel makes it all the more exceptional. If one of the reasons a person reads is to explore different cultures and see society from a different point of view, then this book definitely hits the mark. I recommend it for adult audiences looking for an unusual but well-crafted novel, as well as book groups who are willing to undertake the challenges the novel presents.

A young man growing up in the street of Bristol dreams about owning a house with a yard, but sees selling drugs as his only path to success.