I love discovering hidden gems and 'The Lonely Londoners' by Sam Selvon is certainly one of them. The story follows a group of black men living in--yes, you guessed it, London--during the 1950's as they experience various hardships of being discriminated in a foreign city that is predominantly white and doesn't want them there in the first place. Many immigrants arriving on England's shore from the West Indies are bravely optimistic like Galahad (a fitting nickname given to him by Moses, the central character in the narrative who has lived in this country for many years) who have come here in search of a better life only to quickly discover that any notion of England's roads being paved with gold is a pure myth. Living in London as a black man is to be treated with haughty derision as a foreigner, a racialized "other" who is considered less than human. Work is scarce and many live in abject poverty, barely scraping together enough money to pay the rent or eat on a regular basis. While this sounds like it would be a bleak and depressing read, which it certainly can be at times, the author's satirical critique of racism and 'blackness' is actually very very funny. Selvon's witty humor and comedic flair shines through in highlighting the absurdity of displacement within this diasporic space. The narrative framework consists of a series of 'ballads' or vignettes mostly mediated from the perspective of Moses and is written in a type of 'creolization' that lends itself to an authentic representation of a working-class black vernacular. Thus, Selvon's narrative technique is intrinsically connected to the articulation of lived experience and the need to establish a collective voice against the oppression of language itself along with the shaping of fragmented Caribbean consciousness. Despite its short length, Selvon's work offers a complex representation of the black diaspora--more specifically, home and homelessness. The underlying irony is that even though life in England is pretty terrible, many of these black men refuse to return home. In other words, they are stuck in limbo, neither here nor there. Selvon's London is often a presented as a phantasmagoria, a dream-like and confounding space for them as they battle loneliness and disappointment. Their desire for stability is always out of reach and they must learn to adapt to the hostile environment. Yet, Selvon somehow manages to find humor in this interminable struggle, this incessant longing for home and that is no easy accomplishment. Such a great read.
