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A review by spiralnode
Soho by Keith Waterhouse
2.0
'Soho' is your typical adventure goes wrong kind of story, starring Alex, who comes to London to find (and retrieve...) his girlfriend, in the meantime meeting a vast array of colorful characters and getting into all sorts of trouble in Soho.
I picked up this book rather indifferently from the library, because I was curious to read some Northern England literature, and the blurb seemed to point towards a crime novel. However, I would actually describe it as a comedy, think something like the movie 'Hangover', where everything goes wrong for the main character(s). That is not normally a type of story that I would be the biggest fan of, it's more something that I would read for temporary amusement and then just forget about it.
But 'Soho' started off very promising, and I could see it going towards the crime direction. The prologue is entirely about the history of Soho and the evolution of the neighbourhood throughout the years: from the 'sepia' period of the small town vibe with street shops, to the glamorous 'black and white' ages, all the way to the early 2000s, which describe it as a wild red light district. It then continues to go into the profile of some of the characters you'd meet and their common interactions.
From when Alex steps into the picture, though, the style of writing changes into playful language, emulating accents and idioms from different parts of England. While I can see where Waterhouse was going with this, it felt forced and to be honest, not enjoyable at all. It's one of those things that's funny the first time and gets old really, really fast. The story continues with essentially what is a restless pub crawl in Soho, full of misunderstandings and confusions, without really focusing on Alex's goal anymore. Furthermore, the crimes mentioned in the blurb happen in the last quarter of the book, if that! So by the time I got half way through, I felt I was wasting my time because I was missold this book.
Between the cringy writing style and the uninteresting events that happened to the main character, I can't really say this had much going for it. I am giving it one extra star for the redeeming quality of describing familiar places and it being a nod to the history of Soho, which did grab me in the prologue.
I picked up this book rather indifferently from the library, because I was curious to read some Northern England literature, and the blurb seemed to point towards a crime novel. However, I would actually describe it as a comedy, think something like the movie 'Hangover', where everything goes wrong for the main character(s). That is not normally a type of story that I would be the biggest fan of, it's more something that I would read for temporary amusement and then just forget about it.
But 'Soho' started off very promising, and I could see it going towards the crime direction. The prologue is entirely about the history of Soho and the evolution of the neighbourhood throughout the years: from the 'sepia' period of the small town vibe with street shops, to the glamorous 'black and white' ages, all the way to the early 2000s, which describe it as a wild red light district. It then continues to go into the profile of some of the characters you'd meet and their common interactions.
From when Alex steps into the picture, though, the style of writing changes into playful language, emulating accents and idioms from different parts of England. While I can see where Waterhouse was going with this, it felt forced and to be honest, not enjoyable at all. It's one of those things that's funny the first time and gets old really, really fast. The story continues with essentially what is a restless pub crawl in Soho, full of misunderstandings and confusions, without really focusing on Alex's goal anymore. Furthermore, the crimes mentioned in the blurb happen in the last quarter of the book, if that! So by the time I got half way through, I felt I was wasting my time because I was missold this book.
Between the cringy writing style and the uninteresting events that happened to the main character, I can't really say this had much going for it. I am giving it one extra star for the redeeming quality of describing familiar places and it being a nod to the history of Soho, which did grab me in the prologue.