Rating: WARTY!
Set in London, this audio book started out great, and then went downhill fast so I gave up on it. The first portion, narrated by Razaaq Adoti, tells of Geoffhurst, a black kid named after a star of England's one and only world cup win a half century ago - is taking after his father, not as a soccer player, but as a violent person. His father - who actually was a soccer player is evidently serving time for violence on the soccer field. The story was really going nowhere special but was interesting to hear this guy's take on, and justification of, his shallow life, especially in an authentic black London voice (Adoti was born in London and although he is considerably older than the guy whose story he's telling, his voice has a young and edgy sound to it).
Unfortunately, it was then rudely broken into by the other half of this story, which is narrated most musically by Robin Miles. I say unfortunately, because although Miles's Carribean lilt is beautiful to listen to, the story she's telling goes even less where than Geoffhurst's does. The downtrodden black experience story has been done to death, so if you don't have anything original or insightful to add to it, please steer clear of it. It turns people off rather than engenders sympathy these days.
This story tells of two black sisters (in the literal sense) growing up in London after having moved there from the West Indies. I found nothing in it worth listening to, although Mile's voice was worth hearing, but I could take only so much of that when it was really saying nothing.
I skipped two whole disks in this seven CD pack from my excellent local library, and reconnected with Geoffhurst, but now his story has lost whatever luster it had enjoyed before. I found myself wondering if I would have felt the same had not the sisters interrupted? Is it like the mythological frog in the slowly-heated water? If I had not been interrupted, would I have continued listening to the male side of the story? Or would I - like the frog - have been smarter than the people who purvey those asinine urban legends, and hopped it? I'll never know, but life is too short to keep hanging on begging the author for a truly engaging story, when scores of other authors already have one just waiting around the corner of the next book cover. I can't recommend this based on what I heard.
