The London Pigeon Wars

by Patrick Neate

There are Tariq and Emma, Tom and Karen, Kwesi, Freya, and Ami--city-dwelling thirty-somethingers whose youthful hopes and dreams have dissolved into failing careers, failing relationships, and failing health. And yet their dissatisfaction has scarcely occurred to them until the mythic Murray returns with his Murray fun and irritating ease with life. His reappearance makes them all remember how much fun they used to have and awakens in them old ambitions they thought were dead.

And as this weary group struggles with identity, morality, and the like, London's pigeons, also somehow spurred on by Murray's return, are having an identity crisis all their own--suddenly conscious of moments and matters that were once unremarkable, just as they themselves were. The London Pigeon Wars --extraordinary, bizarre, moving and magical--is an assured novel of discontented stirrings, in both man and bird, that give way to wars within the self and without. Patrick Neate's third novel is superbly written, brilliant, witty, and uproarious, securing for him a spot among the best of contemporary fiction writers.

Genres: Fiction, London

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Zaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really got the feel of being in London.

[Sandra Grauschopf · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was thinking about what I wanted to say about The London Pigeon Wars, the first thing that came to mind was, "The writing was witty, but..." Then it occurred to me that that reaction is exactly what's wrong with this book.

The writing seems sharp, but the plot and the characterization fall flat. I don't have a reason to care about any of the characters. A quote on the back of the book promises, "a real gut-punching shock that sends to reader back to the beginning to reappraise everything that has gone before," but the ending was telegraphed from early on in the book. And the questions I did have about why everything was happening were never answered.

All in all, I would not recommend this book.

[Meike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I give up. Would NOT recommend. I managed to get halfway but I still couldn’t discover the plot. The writing was chaotic and the all-knowing narrator made it impossible to really get to know the characters which just made them shallow and annoying. As a linguist I kinda liked the pigeon slang but still I felt like it was trying too hard.

On to some more fun reading for the summer! 🌞

[maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story itself I loved. But I did NOT understand the purpose of the pigeon chapters. They were so exhausting to read and at one point I just gave up and skipped them.
So over all, enjoyable story that was trying to be „different“ by adding confusing animal perspective. I‘d still recommend though since Murray is… definitely something and I really loved the dynamic he brought into the story.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was an interesting read. about some thirty somethings in london. the odd part is that there is a parallel story going on about pigeons at war. pigeon slang is pretty interesting.

[Ricardo Lopes Moura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story about a group of friends who meet an old colleague they haven't seen in 10 years who suggests they rob a bank to help a couple in need. The pigeon wars of the title are not relevant nor what the book is about, but they play their small part nevertheless. Not all questions are answered but it kind of comes to a somewhat satisfying closure regardless.

[Andy Plonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to decode Pigeon speak so those chapters narrated by a pigeon took a while, but it was well worth the journey.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up at page 60. Nothing was actually happening and the writing was simply pretentious.

[GaiB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really original and thought-provoking read. I found the parts with pigeon voices a little hard going, but in the end wished I'd paid more attention to them.

[anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unusual. And crap! it is completely untranslatable - by me anyway.
Also, what is frustrating is that no one here wrote anything about it, but I need to talk about this book! I need to share, discuss, debate, ask questions... Where's the author?

Actually, stumbled upon (read "actively looked up"...) a review on Amazon, and the guy hit it on the nail: the "deus ex machina" feeling is a little frustrating, and Murray could/should have done with a little (read "a lot") more explaining.

Still. A very enjoyable read.

[Discoverylover]

"Master storyteller and Whitbread Novel Award-wimmer Patrick Neate has written a funny, provocative and daring tale of London high and low life set among the capital's twirtysomethings. Featuring performance poetry; murder; Trafalgar Square's only fried-chicken induced battle; hat selling; bank robbery for the middle classes; love (and other social ailments); as well as pigeons - lots of crazed, angry thinking pigeons - The London Pigeon Wars is both a comic fable for our times and an exciting bird's-eye view of life (and death) in the city."

[AriBa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The human characters and their backgrounds, relationships, interactions etc., was interesting and at time made for some funny moments. The pigeon consciousness on the other hand - although it helped fill in a few holes and whatnot - was mostly distracting. For an animal that described itself as bird-brained, it spoke (thought) with an eloquence not unlike the characters in A Clockwork Orange or 'V' from V for Vendetta, but that only served to slow the pace of the book somewhat as I tried to decipher what it was saying.

A bit of a Marmite book, I think.

[Colin Mclennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such low attention spans for some of those that tried to read this book! I really enjoyed it and the pidgin speak Is nothing to those of us that read train spotting twenty years ago. My twin fascination with Murray and with the surreal pigeon element kept me going to the end. I DID find myself flicking back to chapters gone by to see how it all fitted in and I am still thinking about it the day after. It's not perfect but it's surely entertaining and different from your run of the mill by numbers join the dot novel.

[Tom D'Roza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out really enjoying the chapters written from the pigeon's perspective. The author makes clever use of "pigeon English" to highlight the pigeon's view of the world. By the end though I found those chapters hard work and a distraction from the main story line. Still, a fairly entertaining read, although I found the ending confusing - I suspect there was some deeper meaning that was lost on me.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It all started out so promising. Pigeons with thoughts and their own language (a bit like Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange - "viddying" etc) but oh boy, it became unsustainable. The pigeon-speak became entirely incomprehensible and the long and winding plot never really got going. I was unable to finish it.

[Lousie · Rating 4 out of 5]

London's pigeons go to war while beneath a group of thirty-somethings feel lost and decide to rob a bank.

The chapters written in the voice of the pigeons - their strange new pigeon language - are delightful. The terribly charismatic Murray - the pied piper of the humans - should be annoying but isn't. It's all very strange and darkly enjoyable.

[Jennifer Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having started this book three times and failing to get past the first chapter (pidgin isn't the easiest to get your head round) I finally stuck with it 4th time round and wish I'd done it sooner! Love the characters (both human and pigeon) and the mystery of exactly who - or what - Murray is still has me wondering!

[Emma Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the parts from the pigeon's perspective, not enough books give pigeons the chance to give their point of view. The human stories and relationships were great too and this book would've got 4/5 except the ending revelation wanted me to stretch my suspended disbelief just a tiny bit too much. I'd already accepted talking pigeons book! -.-

[Maja Dezulovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book ended up in my hands by accident. I picked it up at a flat my aunt was renting; it had been left behind my a previous tenant.
I enjoyed the book. The author's voice is fresh and easy to read. I'll probably dive into more of his work. I loved the protagonists' story against the backdrop of the pigeon wars - it's almost like a modern version of Hitchcock's The Birds.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is so weird. the structure, the characters, the tone, the voices of alternate universe pigeons - i could only skim those parts because the pigeon language was so grating. It took me a while to get through but at the end of the day I kind of liked it? Eh.

[Mahria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pigeons that talk! Yes! If only they were the entire story.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a fun book! Had to re-read it...

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

when i finished this book i missed it so much i turned back to the first page and read it over again. but maybe that's just cuz i'm compulsive sometimes. but it was a great read.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Big Chill meets Animal Farm in an intriguing book which ultimately fails to move you - Twelve Bar Blues is a much better bet

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adored this. OK, I didn't always get the pigeon parts, the weird bird patois, but I stuck with it and I can't immediately recall any other literary ending that has affected me so deeply.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. Such a great idea - I would love to read about the lives of our great London pigeons but it fell down on plot, pace and even comprehensiveness.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this and I really didn't know what to expect from it, an original perspective!

[Asha Stark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a writing style I could take to, unfortunately. Very novel premise though.

[Eimear Fee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A must if you speak pigeon.

NOT a favourite.

[Missee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let this be a lesson to Neate (and anyone else who decides to publish their creative experiments - undertaking them is all well and fine, but publishing them should always be a matter of discretion, as this book proves!!): the harder that you make it for people to read these experiments, the more annoyed they'll be when they reach the end, and realize they have to re-read the entire thing to pick up trace clues that explain anything about the ending. It's annoying, to say the least.

At first, I was really taken by the pigeon angle, but found the language way too dense and had to stop reading a few days between every pigeon scene. But I ploughed on - that's how intrigued I was. Neate should have kept this in mind and realized that any chance of a person reading the entire thing in a couple of days' sitting, and being able to keep track of all the events in their head, would have vanished. At the very least, his editor should have realized it.

Now that I've reached the end - which has taken around 3-4 weeks to get to - I can't remember WTF Murray was up to when he got into a fistfight with whoever about Karen, and the ending is therefore utterly meaningless to me. And I'm not about to start rereading everything just to figure it out, cause at the end of the day I believe a narrator still has to narrate a tale, and not leave the vast majority of the effort up to the readers. What doesn't help is that hardly anyone has written a 'reveal' about the meaning of the storyline anywhere on the net. Presumably, that's because few people made it that far. And it's a shame because there's a lot of creativity evident here, but there wasn't really any effort made to render it accessible.

Way to reward your readers, Mr. Neate. You could at least have thrown a bone to those of us that hung in there!? Even though I like the experimental flair he shows, I won't be recommending this to anyone. Saves them a 3 week headache and the almost certain frustration of the ending.