Brenton Brown is a follow-up to Alex Wheatle’s famous debut Brixton Rock, which was set in the early 1980s. We catch up with the characters of that book about 25 years later in contemporary Britain, and those who read the first book will enjoy seeing how things turned out, especially with the title character Brenton, who fell in love with his half-sister Juliet. Things get a lot messier in this book, despite their best efforts to avoid it, as the child they had together is now grown-up and wants to know who her real father is (they never told her), and Juliet’s husband begins to suspect, and meanwhile Juliet is running for government and can’t have any scandal coming out in public. There’s a lot of tension, and I wouldn’t say you need to have read Brixton Rock to enjoy this story. The passages with old friends like Biscuit and Coffin Head won’t mean as much to new readers, but that’s a small point.

Coming back to the same characters at different points in history is something Alex Wheatle has done before, with characters from East of Acre Lane appearing both in an earlier time (in the book Island Songs) and a later one (The Dirty South). It’s a strategy that works well as it allows the reader not only to follow familiar characters but also to see what’s changed more broadly in Brixton and indeed Britain. In this book many of the features of the older Brixton have been replaced with swanky bars and cool cafes, but still beneath the surface a lot of the problems remain – young people with nowhere to turn, a government that doesn’t care, an undercurrent of violence and tension. As Brenton’s daughter Breanna puts it, talking to wannabe gangster Sean, “The only thing you have to offer is to show your crew how bad you are. Show them how street you are. Show them how much of a fucking soldier you are. That’s all you live for, innit?” Later Brenton himself comes into contact with Sean and sees that for him, it’s easier to pretend to be “bad” than to do the right thing, with all the obstacles to overcome.

The main focus of the story, though, is on Brenton and Juliet and their forbidden love for each other. Wheatle takes us inside the head of each character so that we know exactly what they’re feeling and thinking. It seems inevitable, then, that Brenton and Juliet will end up giving in to their passions (especially as the back cover tells us they will), but it takes a long time, and the tension builds up very effectively. There’s also some back story on Brenton’s time in children’s homes, and a good exploration of the question of how long someone can be ruled by a childhood tragedy. Several of the characters tell him to grow up and move on, get over it and stop using it as an excuse for his emotional failures, etc., but it’s clear that it’s not that simple, that his childhood has a great effect on him as a forty-something man. Brenton tries to get away from his past, both his painful childhood memories and his doomed love for Juliet, but even moving to Florida doesn’t really enable him to “start a new life” – he’s still ruled by the old.

I’ve read all of Wheatle’s books and this one didn’t disappoint. I’d still say East of Acre Lane is my favourite, mostly because of the fantastic dialogue (in this book, in fact, the dialogue sparked to life most for me in the banter between Brenton and his friends remembering the old days of the 1980s). But this one is also a good story well told, and I’d definitely recommend it.

This is a new book and the only other review I can find right now on the book blogs is at a book between friends. Let me know if you’ve written one or read one, and I’ll link to it as well.

Click here to see more books I’ve reviewed on this site.