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bethvance's review
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Body horror, and Racism
Minor: Colonisation
musubi_mumma's review
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
A colleague recommended this book to me and oh my, do I owe them BIG now! The Fortune Men is devastating in every way. The story, without question, is a profound lesson in the paradoxes and insidiousness of racism, the tragedy of putting faith in a prejudiced judicial system, how thin the line is between life and death, past and future, the awfulness of history.
The novel revolves around a young Somali man who has found his way to Britain and built a life for himself there, complete with a wife and children. He is an ordinary man, a flawed man, but not a bad man; his morals are imperfect but not malicious. In his Welsh town, there is a sundry shop, owned and run by a Jewish woman. She is murdered. He is arrested. The novel spins from that point around his trial and his incarceration.
The details of the crime and his arrest are revealed, it becomes clear that things are not so black and white, literally and figuratively, according to the shade of his skin. In this Welsh neighborhood, there has been the recent in flux of many immigrants: those from the Caribbean — coming off the HMS Windrush — as well others like him, from Somalia, parts of West Africa, Nigeria, South Asians from India, Pakistan. There are Jews, Muslims, Christians. And then there are the White Welsh and English. The only thing they seem to have in common is their denizenship in a working class milieu: they are each trying to survive in their own ways, struggling with the constraints put upon them by their race, the color of their skin, their gender.
Mohamed’s prose weaves together the multiple layers of this crime, both the murder and the crime of injustice via complex characters who each come to this place armed with their own ambitions and hampered by their past experiences; they are as flawed as the main protagonist — and like him, we can see that they are not truly “bad” people, but merely making decisions based on the ethnic, racial, and class based expectations put on them. Reader, you will weep for all the characters in The Fortune Men, for they are as trapped as the prisoner in his cell.
It is hard to write a review of this book without giving away its ending, because its ending is really the beginning of the question that led to its creation. It is based on a true story, which is what makes this even more tragic and heart-rending.
All I can say is: You must read this. You must weep for the man, the woman, his wife, his children, the families torn apart by the events that took place in 1952-1953 in this small Welsh town. And you must be angry.
The novel revolves around a young Somali man who has found his way to Britain and built a life for himself there, complete with a wife and children. He is an ordinary man, a flawed man, but not a bad man; his morals are imperfect but not malicious. In his Welsh town, there is a sundry shop, owned and run by a Jewish woman. She is murdered. He is arrested. The novel spins from that point around his trial and his incarceration.
The details of the crime and his arrest are revealed, it becomes clear that things are not so black and white, literally and figuratively, according to the shade of his skin. In this Welsh neighborhood, there has been the recent in flux of many immigrants: those from the Caribbean — coming off the HMS Windrush — as well others like him, from Somalia, parts of West Africa, Nigeria, South Asians from India, Pakistan. There are Jews, Muslims, Christians. And then there are the White Welsh and English. The only thing they seem to have in common is their denizenship in a working class milieu: they are each trying to survive in their own ways, struggling with the constraints put upon them by their race, the color of their skin, their gender.
Mohamed’s prose weaves together the multiple layers of this crime, both the murder and the crime of injustice via complex characters who each come to this place armed with their own ambitions and hampered by their past experiences; they are as flawed as the main protagonist — and like him, we can see that they are not truly “bad” people, but merely making decisions based on the ethnic, racial, and class based expectations put on them. Reader, you will weep for all the characters in The Fortune Men, for they are as trapped as the prisoner in his cell.
It is hard to write a review of this book without giving away its ending, because its ending is really the beginning of the question that led to its creation. It is based on a true story, which is what makes this even more tragic and heart-rending.
All I can say is: You must read this. You must weep for the man, the woman, his wife, his children, the families torn apart by the events that took place in 1952-1953 in this small Welsh town. And you must be angry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Classism, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Murder, and Police brutality
nialiversuch's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Classism, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Blood, Grief, Murder, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Cursing
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Antisemitism
deedireads's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Fortune Men is a novel based on a true story that occasionally drags a bit, but ultimately does a lot of things well. Once you hit the second half, though, it really takes off.
For you if: You like literary historical fiction based on real events.
FULL REVIEW:
The Fortune Men is my last read of the 2021 Booker Prize shortlist. I’m not sure I would have shortlisted it, myself, but I did ultimately walk away glad I read it.
This novel is based on the true story of Mahmood Mattan, who was wrongly accused of brutally murdering a Jewish woman shopkeeper, and the last person to be executed in Cardiff, Wales. Nadifa Mohamed brings to life his gritty character, the way racism and xenophobia touched every part of his existence, his interracial marriage, his dreams as a father, and his heartbreaking (misplaced) faith in the British justice system.
Things I really liked about this book: The dual POVs, which introduced us to the murdered woman and her family, and their own experiences with persecution. The handling of Mahmood’s troubled marriage and how the author gave it such nuance and heart. And pretty much the whole second half, which became more focused and faster paced.
As for the first half of the book, there was just something a bit detached, and slower-paced stretches that I wanted to love but never clicked for me. Pretty much everyone at book club felt similarly, but we all agreed that the ending was so engaging that by the time we finished, we’d forgiven our struggle with the first half.
So while this wasn’t my favorite ever, I would definitely be open to reading more of Nadifa Mohamed in the future.
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Fortune Men is a novel based on a true story that occasionally drags a bit, but ultimately does a lot of things well. Once you hit the second half, though, it really takes off.
For you if: You like literary historical fiction based on real events.
FULL REVIEW:
The Fortune Men is my last read of the 2021 Booker Prize shortlist. I’m not sure I would have shortlisted it, myself, but I did ultimately walk away glad I read it.
This novel is based on the true story of Mahmood Mattan, who was wrongly accused of brutally murdering a Jewish woman shopkeeper, and the last person to be executed in Cardiff, Wales. Nadifa Mohamed brings to life his gritty character, the way racism and xenophobia touched every part of his existence, his interracial marriage, his dreams as a father, and his heartbreaking (misplaced) faith in the British justice system.
Things I really liked about this book: The dual POVs, which introduced us to the murdered woman and her family, and their own experiences with persecution. The handling of Mahmood’s troubled marriage and how the author gave it such nuance and heart. And pretty much the whole second half, which became more focused and faster paced.
As for the first half of the book, there was just something a bit detached, and slower-paced stretches that I wanted to love but never clicked for me. Pretty much everyone at book club felt similarly, but we all agreed that the ending was so engaging that by the time we finished, we’d forgiven our struggle with the first half.
So while this wasn’t my favorite ever, I would definitely be open to reading more of Nadifa Mohamed in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Racism
ladymirtazapine's review
adventurous
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, and War
Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Islamophobia, Police brutality, and Violence
Minor: Colonisation and Transphobia
absolutive's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In this novel of a real-life case of a Somali-British man who was executed for a crime he did not commit, Nadifa Mohamed brings to life Cardiff's Tiger Bay, a community of Black, Muslim, Jewish, immigrant, British people scraping by just after the Second World War. Mohamed provides us with a flawed hero; he is innocent of the particular crime, but he is a petty thief who has committed other, smaller crimes. He is captured in all his "greed, lust, courage, restlessness and sacrifice"--and, I would add, pride. The book's treatment of its Jewish community, a community scarred by its relation to Jews who died in the Holocaust, is a surprising strength. Looking for safety and comfort and trying to build a life in difficult circumstances, the family of the Jewish shopkeeper who is murdered mirrors, in some ways, the Somali man who did not kill her. The Jews in this book have been subjected to British Antisemitism, just as the Somalis know that, had they been born with white skin they would know "British justice." The novel is an effective look at the history of institutional racism that haunts this country, with resonances today, though carefully controlled and placed in the 1950s context.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Murder
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