Vinnie Got Blown Away
Jeremy Cameron, 1995
HopeRoad
162 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781908446183
Summary
Nicky Burkett finds his childhood friend Vinnie dead at the bottom of a tower block. He and his mates have a code of conduct which makes revenge inevitable. They have to find the villains—much more serious criminals than themselves—and then they have to take them on.
The result is a hilarious hybrid of Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino, with dialogue that crackles off the page, unforgettable characters and an authentic sense of place.
Darkly comic, stylish and violent, Vinnie Got Blown Away offers a radical contrast from the British tradition of a murder mystery among the middle classes. It mixes without discrimination among black, white and Asian communities; it follows their speech patterns: cockney and Caribbean unite. It demonstrates the resilience in these communities, an ability to survive against all outside pressures and values.
Walthamstow is stuck on the end of the north east of London. It is part of London, but it inhabits a world of its own. Vinnie Got Blown Away is the first of five novels by Jeremy Cameron describing the area. The books are about a multi-racial community in which loyalty to your mates is more important than following the rules of society.
This is a community with very little hope of finding jobs, status and money: the traditional aims of society. Instead, the community has its own aims and its own ways of surviving. It has resilience, it has humour and it knows what a fast buck looks like. Some of its characters break the law, some don't; but they all know how life is.
Brilliantly reviewed on its initial release in 1995, Vinnie Got Blown Away holds a unique place in the crime fiction canon, and is ripe for rediscovery by a new generation of readers. It is now recognised as being one of the British crime novels that one has to read. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 3, 1947
• Where—Norfolk, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Oxford University
• Currently—lives in Norfolk, England
Jeremy Cameron spent several years working in hostels for the homeless, and twenty years living and working in Walthamstow. During this period he wrote five novels set in Walthamstow and featuring Nicky Burkett.
The other books in the Nicky Burket Series include Wider than Walthamstow; Hell on Hoe Street, Brown Bread in Wengen, and It Was an Accident. His other books include: Never Again: A Walk from Hook of Holland to Istanbul and How to be President—of Norfolk Lawn Tennis Association. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
You can also follow Jeremy on Twitter.
Book Reviews
Audacious and outrageous.
Daily Telegraph
Jaunty, exhilarating and original, with a feeling for street life that renders it sexy and poignant.
Literary Review
A fast, funny trawl through the territory of London's new outlaw underclass. IIt is a masterly piece of storytelling
Financial Times
A short, sharp shock of a novel.
GQ
Funny, violent and vivid
Sunday Times
Discussion Questions
1. What is Nicky's attitude towards women?
2. Do women figure positively in the book?
3. Which of his mates are black, and which are white?
4. Is the language used in the book hard to absorb?
5. Do you feel that Walthamstow is a place you would like to visit?
6. Does Nicky change at all during the book?
7. Did you find the book violent?
8. Which is your favourite character, and why?
9. From the book, what would you feel are the causes of crime?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)