Bageye at the Wheel

by Colin Grant

A brilliant memoir about growing up in one of the very few black families in Luton in the 1970s and a superb portrait of the author's father: the feckless, tyrannical Bageye.
 
To his fellow West Indians who assemble every weekend for the all-night poker game at Mrs Knight's, he is always known as Bageye. There aren't very many black men in Luton in 1972 and most of them gather at Mrs Knight's -- Summer Wear, Pioneer, Anxious, Tidy Boots -- each has his nickname. Bageye already finds it a struggle to feed his family on his wage from Vauxhall Motors, but now his wife Blossom has set her heart on her sons going to private school.
 
In this wonderful memoir Colin Grant looks at his father through the eyes of his ten-year-old self. Colin is Bageye's favourite 'pickney', and often his reluctant companion in his latest attempt to placate Blossom with another DIY project, or a little cash. When he acquires a less than roadworthy old car, Bageye sets himself up as an unofficial minicab service, lack of a driving licence notwithstanding. More profitable are his marijuana deals, until the day he mistakenly entrusts Colin with choosing a hiding place for a huge bag of ganja.

Genres: Biography, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

The author of Negro with a Hat, a biography of Marcus Garvey, Colin Grant is an independent historian who works for BBC Radio. The son of Jamaican immigrants, he lives in London.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Colin Grant’s autobiographical novel Bageye At The Wheel is set in the bleak estate of Farley Hill in Luton, Bedfordshire. It tells the story of a black Jamaican family – or, rather, a feckless Jamaican husband (nicknamed Bageye) and exasperated Jamaican wife (called Blossom) and their England-born children – as they try to stay afloat in the racist world of 1970s suburbia. Think of Sam Selvon’s Lonely Londoners 20 years down the line, with kids in tow, featuring Jamaicans instead of Trinidadians and, it has to be said, not quite as many stylistic quirks. Ok…perhaps don’t think of Lonely Londoners at all…

The narrative unfolds through the eyes of one of Bageye’s sons, who looks on as Bageye gambles away the family’s savings and makes the family’s life a living hell with his dark moods and rules of behaviour designed to stifle everything Jamaican in favour of the pursuit of Englishness.

It’s a bleak tale that started life as a short story. I think it probably should have stayed that way. Its characters (aside from Bageye) are underdeveloped, the narrative style is bland and unengaging – anecdotal rather than revolutionary – and the plot doesn’t really go anywhere. I wasn’t a fan of the ending; it felt ill-fitting, perfunctory. It’s a 2-starrer, that's all I can say.

Read more of my review at: http://emilykmorrison.wordpress.com/2...

[Akin · Rating 2 out of 5]

One the one hand, literate and well written; But on the other, with the airs of an anecdote that ultimately overstays its welcome. The story doesn't really lift itself beyond being of curiosity value, and the claustrophobic intensity of the narrator's perspective denies this memoir really informative value.

(All this aside, whilst reading this I couldn't help but think of East is East, and the thin line that meanders between laughing with someone and laughing at someone. I'm possibly the only person in the Western Hemisphere who loathes E is E, btw.)

[Linda Fallows · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book about a Jamaican family in England in the sixties. So true to life, and honestly told. The author’s father reminds me so much of my Jamaican brother-in-law, who was a very similar character, and whose kids were treated very strictly.
This book will remain with me for a long time as it is so evocative of the time it was set and it’s portrayal of the Jamaican immigrant families of the time.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique book. Rarely see such an insight into West Indian culture here in the suburbs.

[Naomi Foyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colin Grant's captivating and moving memoir of his father was a deserved nominee for the 2013 PEN/ACKERLEY Prize. Vivid with insights into Jamaican immigrant culture in 1970s Luton, this dryly hilarious book paints a wincing yet ultimately poignant portrait of the charismatic but unpredictable Bageye - so named for his sleepless visage. Despite neglecting the family for weekend gambling sessions, losing the money for new shoes many times over, and actively working to undermine his wife's back-breaking efforts to take care of their pickneys, Bageye somehow decides to help fund his children's private educations - giving the author a key to advancement and a complex emotional history to unravel. Like the best memoirs, the book reads like a novel - a lively and dramatic one, with a full cast of vibrant local characters and long-suffering family members. I would read it again for the dialogue, humour and wry cultural observations, but while I can't give away the ending it shifts the book into yet another dimension, foregrounding the father-son relationship at the heart of this remarkable book and suggesting that Grant hasn't yet finished with this story.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book. It took me a while to get into it. But once I did I enjoyed its pathos and its humour. This was such a study of a man who was a failure as a father and a husband and who was palpably and painfully aware that he was. Defiantly so. The truth about who he is/was- was always mirrored in the haunted and fearful eyes of his children and echoed from the carping and hypercritical lips of his wife. I couldn’t help feeling a wee bit sorry for Bageye. As flawed as he was, Bageye evoked a certain amount of pity, only the shame and bewilderment of his children were stronger. Sometimes I felt the writer weaved the story with such detachment that I had to reread sections to actually grasp what was happening. It’s as if Grant was writing around the story than from within the story. Sometimes the detachment worked because it mirrored the perspective of a 10 year old boy but other times it didn’t. Nevertheless this was a story that was both brutal and tender. I would recommend it highly to readers. I was hoping the wife/mother would have gone out and found a job I.e. train as a nurse or something.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed references to Luton and Farley Hill. Would like to know what happened to Blossom, Bageye and the siblings.

[Elsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

You need to know or be in a Jamaican family to understand this book. The ending was emotional for me as it completely reminded me of my father. Thanks Colin.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is told through eyes of 10 year old, who really carries you visually through location and at the same portrays each character in his or hers true voice.