Scan barcode
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
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
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
My reading experience with this one was influenced by the fact that I knew what it was about and how it ended before I started reading. Yet, despite being an adult and knowing how both books and the real world work, as I read I found myself hoping something would happen to change the trajectory of this story. Of course it didn’t.
The emotions this book elicited - especially the sadness, anger and disbelief- were expected. What I wasn’t necessarily expecting was to find such a rich character study of a colourful if flawed man. The setting - both time and place was also richly drawn and I was surprised by just how multicultural, yet non-integrated the area was in the early 1950s. Learning about Mahmood Mattan’s upbringing and travels, seeing the way he interacted with his wife, children and the wider community, as well as they way they interacted with him, ensured that I saw him as more than a victim of gross injustice. Paradoxically it also heightened my sense of that injustice because I could see him as a unique individual rather than a generic stereotype. He was not a blameless man and his faults arguably contributed to his conviction. But should justice only be available to those with a spotless character?
Final verdict - A heavy hitting character study highlighting a historical true case of institutional racism with the justice system. One that is sadly still all-too-relevant today.
The emotions this book elicited - especially the sadness, anger and disbelief- were expected. What I wasn’t necessarily expecting was to find such a rich character study of a colourful if flawed man. The setting - both time and place was also richly drawn and I was surprised by just how multicultural, yet non-integrated the area was in the early 1950s. Learning about Mahmood Mattan’s upbringing and travels, seeing the way he interacted with his wife, children and the wider community, as well as they way they interacted with him, ensured that I saw him as more than a victim of gross injustice. Paradoxically it also heightened my sense of that injustice because I could see him as a unique individual rather than a generic stereotype. He was not a blameless man and his faults arguably contributed to his conviction. But should justice only be available to those with a spotless character?
Final verdict - A heavy hitting character study highlighting a historical true case of institutional racism with the justice system. One that is sadly still all-too-relevant today.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, and Religious bigotry
More...