Book Review

Book Review

William Boyd - Ordinary Thunderstorms

The novel Ordinary Thunderstorms, written by William Boyd, in the year 2009.

It's story is about Adam, a climatologist, who had a sexual indescretion, which ruined his career and his marriage, is in London for a job interview, at the beginning of the story.

While he's dining alone, he gets into a conversation with Philip Wang, an immunologist who accidently leaves a bunch of paper in the restaurant.

Adam attempts to return them, but he finds his new acquaintance killed, with a knife in his chest.

Adam removes the knife, ensuring that there are fingerprints on the knife as well as on Wang's body.

He is then pursued by Wang's killer, and shortly after also by the police.

After escaping, he settles under the Chelsea bridge, eating seagulls for dinner, and spending the night with other homeless people.

After the first escape, and finding a hiding place, things get really exciting. When Adam has evaded the biggest danger, he makes himself a new identity, and manages to get two new homes, that are at least small improvements compared to the Chelsea Bridge.

First, he moves into a creepy and dangerous housing estate, where he gets to know a prostitute, called Mhouse.

He also gets a second identity, when he takes over the identity of a dead drugdealer, and calls himself Primo Belem.

All the time, when he tries to find out, why Wang has been killed, and what is so important, that they want to kill him too.

It leads Adam to the darkest secrets of the pharmaceutical industry, which has developed a medicine against Asthma, which has been tested on several kids.

This is a novel about the fragility of identity, and the anonymity in a metropolis, packed up in a intersting story of a criminal pharmaceutic industry and a seek and hide with an understanable main character.

William Boyd gives a very detailed look on every part London, from „the Shaft“, a slum on the southern side of the Thames river, to the noble boardrooms.

Boyd gives you a look, to see how easy it is to „vanish“ from a metropolis such as London.

The only thing you have to do, as mentioned in the book is :

„No cheques, no bills, no references, no mobile phone calls – only payphones – no credit cards, only cash – nothing.“

While Adam is in the underground, there is a fast-paced story around him, for example he is hunted by a merciless assassin, who works for Ingram Fryzer, the head of the „Zembla 4“ developing comany, Calenture-Deutz.

This leads to the most impressive quality of the novel, besides the clear and detailed description of the metropolitan anonymity, which is the way, how William Boyd goes through a group of differenc characters.

That is, how Boyd allows the reader, to experience the story from different views.

First we have Adam, but we also see the whole development of the story through Jonjo's ( Ingram Fryzers assassin), a young policewoman's and Fryzer's eyes.

As Boyd says in an interview, the book is mostly made to show the special sides of London, and the diversity of life in a metropolis, and the story about the „Zembla 4“ is only a intersting subplot.

I think that Boyd wanted to have the reader experience more then just one view of London and the different places there.

In my opinion, the book is well written, and the best qualities of the book are the good description of the city of London, and also how you can go underground and vanish from the people who search you, like here the police and Jonjo.

Furthermore, it has a lot of different places and characters, it's not hold into one society class, but you meet characters of every social class.

Its surprising, how well Boyd can describe citylife, also in parts of the city which he is not familiar with, because I think, it is very difficult, to give a realistic image of the slums in London, or the inner life of a rich company like Calenture Deutz, without having been part of it !

I nevertheless think, it's not the most interesting book, because it's repeating itself in the middle part of the book, when Adam finds out more things about „Zembla 4“.

Also, in many ways, it seems not fully realistic, what Adam does, for example, that he does not directly go to the police, when he first escaped Jonjo and the police.

After he escaped, he should have gone there, and explain everything, because the police is not as evil and stupid as it seems to be in the book, in my opinion.

But the story is, as mentioned, not the most important part of Boyd's novel, but the great image of life in a metroplis, and becoming anonymous in a few hours.

Johannes van der Vegt

Book review by Lula Talini

Book review of William Boyd’s “Ordinary thunderstorms“

William Boyd’s latest novel “Ordinary thunderstorms” is a brilliant book, easily read without being undemanding. He manages to create a fiction so enthralling but so close to real life, one could believe that it is happening right now, somewhere out there. His focus on London is well set, because while reading one gets to know so much about this metropolis, that suddenly the plot can not take place anywhere, but only in a city of millions of people and so much restlessness as this capital.

Presenting every character’s life out of its own, but also out of other character’s view, leaves the reader the choice to sympathize with him or not. And since every social class is represented by at least one protagonist it is simple to identify oneself with the book and enter the story, living it while reading.

Out of unpredictable contretemps a thriller emerges, which banishes the reader. The story begins with the young and successful climatologist Adam Kindred, who at the wrong time is in the wrong place. He is then accused of a murder he did not commit.

Escaping from the police and a hit man, who has been appointed because Adam got too much information about a risky new drug, which is supposed to get on the marked, he submerses changing name and personality. Throughout the story he receives sympathy, warmth and love but also violence, betrayal and ambivalence and in order to survive he is sometimes forced into inhumanity.

The idea of the novel initiated when William Boyd came across an article with the incredible information of 50 to 60 dead bodies hauled out of the tames every year. With “Ordinary Thunderstorms” he succeeds in writing an entertaining thriller as well as describing the numerous facets of a contemporary city. I would recommend this book to everybody, interested in a good fiction and absorbing suspense.

Book review (Toni Juhl): Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd

The book "Ordinary Thunderstorms" was published in 2009 and is written by William Boyd.

He was born at the 7th of March in Ghana and is a scottish writer, screenwriter and director. William Boyd currently lives with his wife Susan in London. He wrote several books, "Ordinary Thunderstorms is his sixteenth and belongs in the category thriller. It was released by the "Bloomsbury publishing company" and has got 404 pages.

The book is about a man called Adam Kindred. One day he meets Philip Wang, who is the chief-developer of a huge pharmaceutical company called Calenture-Deutz. Kindred wants to bring Wang his forgotten briefcase to his home. When Adam Kindred is in the flat of the chief-developer he is sees him lying on the ground with a knife in his chest - dead. Everything indicates on Adam Kindred as Philip Wang's murder. Because of this, Kindred flees with the briefcase out of Wang's home and hides in the following under the Chelsea bridge. The police searches after him, but there are also other people that wants to find him...

The book "Ordinary Thunderstorms" deals with the question of identity. Adam Kindred accomplishes to hide in such a big city as London and the author (William Boyd) deals with the question whether it is possible to live in a metropolis without an identity.

The main character has to handle with different problems. Because he cannot venture to use a credit card Kindred has no money. According by William Boyd, a credit card is not necessary to survive in a city: Adam Kindred is clever and notices that it is possible to make a lot of money with begging. So he takes a blind man's stick from someone and starts begging at several underground stations.

However, "surviving in a metropolis" is not the sole topic of William Boyd's thriller. "Ordinary Thunderstorms" also deals with many different social classes, which are located in a city from the size of London. While escaping from the police and other wicked humans Kindred meets a lot of people from different social classes. For example Mhouse, a prostitute or Rita Nashe, a police officer.

In my opinion the book is not just the story of  a man hiding in London without an identity. William Boyd is criticizing the anonymity in a metropolis in some way: Of course in his book it is good for Adam Kindred that it is possible to hide in the city. But in many cases anonymity is not fine at all. Everyone lives in his own small world in a huge city, even does not know what the names of his neighbors are. Because of this it is possible for someone to hide without an identity and the individuality gets lost so all individuals get mixed up to "the population of London".  

In conclusion I think "Ordinary Thunderstorms" by William Boyd is a great thriller. The most important topic of the book is, how to survive in  a city as London without any money or home - completely on your one's own. But in addition to that it also shows up the diversity of social classes in a city.

In my opinion William Boyd finds a good way to handle with these two  topics in one book and his writing style is excellent: The chapters are not too long and William Boyd succeeds to manage the huge number of characters without confusing the reader.

Finally I would entrust "Ordinary Thunderstorms" to everyone that likes exciting books with interesting characters from all classes. Because of this and also because of the great abilities of William Boyd as an author "Ordinary Thunderstorms" is a great book and my personal tip for this year's Christmas gift!

Paul Darius

Ordinary thunderstorms

The novel “ordinary thunderstorms” written by William Boyd was published in Great Britain in 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The book deals with the loss of personality and the life in different social classes in the 21^th century.

The story is about the middle class climatologist Adam Kindred, who moves to London to become a professor. After meeting the pharmaceutical scientist Philip Wang in a restaurant, who forgets his documents there, Adam tries to hand them back. When he arrives, he finds him murdered with a knife. In a reflex, he pulls it out and leaves his fingerprints. After that he is wrongly suspected of murdering Philip Wang.

Adam decides to not go public and try to show his innocence, but instead to hide from the police. This probably is the most important decision in his life: Nothings stays like it is, he is going to loose everything. Adam first looses all his material belongings, such as mobile phone, credit card and passport. Most importantly he looses his personality. He cannot use his name anymore…

Later in the novel, he gets to now to various people of the very low part of the society, such as the prostitute Mhouse or the drug dealer Vladimir. Adam even becomes a beggar for some time.

Eventually he gets the possibility to get a new personality. He then begins to become part of the society again.

According to an interview, the reason why William Boyd wrote the book was a newspaper article mentioning the 50-60 dead bodies found in the Thames every year. Boyd thought about Charles Dickens, whose novel starts on the river with a dead body pulled out. Why not writing a book about it?

As we can see in the beginning of the first chapter, the river is a very important part of the book. “Let us start with the river - all things begin with the river and we shall probably end there, no doubt – but let’s wait and see how we go.” The river is an indicator of the time, which does not stop. You cannot press the rewind button to reverse things that you have done in the past.

Another important aspect of the novel is the different social classes the main character moves through. At the beginning he belongs to the middle class, is well earning person with a wife. After the alleged murder on Philip Wang he looses everything and becomes a member of the lowest social class. - He is worth nothing, he does not even have an identity any more. - He then tries to figure out the situation and tries to become part of the society again. He gets the possibility of taking another’s personality. In the end of the novel, he has got a job and a passport again. He also proves his innocence. At this point he gets back to what his life was before.

William Boyd has lived in London for more than 20 years. He always liked the cultural and social diversity of the megacity with all its different layers. In “ordinary thunderstorms” he wanted to reflect this diversity of the city.

He also wanted to show how it is like to loose everything in todays time and go into the underground:  “no cheques, no bills, no references, no mobile phones, only cash – nothing. That’s how you disappear in the twenty-first century”

He wants to state, that without these objects of the 21^th century one is an nobody.

In more than five books he already mentioned this topic.

William Boyd created very interesting characters. He tried to design them as real as possible. The reader could easily feel how the different characters think and act. He made that possible, by letting each of them speak in a very specific way. The level of education and the social status was shown very good by that technique.

William Boyd wanted to create a story, which is not fixed at any specific time. It is a contemporary novel, which could even take place in 20 or 30 years time.

I think William Boyd created a book, which is suitable for a big audience. The book provides the reader with enough background knowledge to understand the book easily. Also the topic is not too specific, so that the reader gets the general issue talked about.

However there are some disadvantages according to the novel. I think the story does not quit appear too realistic. If I was wrongly suspected of having killed somebody, I would not have tried to go underground. I would rather show my innocents.

The book “ordinary thunderstorms” is very well written and quit interesting to read. Apart of some negative aspects, I would recommend it to all people who are interested in London and the life in metropolises in general. William Boyd has made up a story, which presents London in all its atmosphere and diversity. Even though it is not realistic throughout, Boyd managed to create a book, which you do not want to stop to read. Every chapter is of another persons view and brings new aspects into the story.

I personally loved the book!

Book review - Ordinary Thunderstorms

The novel “Ordinary Thunderstorms” written by William Boyd, published in 2009, takes part in the modern day London and leads the reader around various places within the city. The story is written from the perspective of several characters, making the book a diverse reading experience.

The plot revolves around the main character Adam Kindred that, after meeting a pharm scientist in a restaurant, finds the man murdered in his apartment when trying to deliver him papers he had forgotten at the restaurant. From that point on an epic story develops with Adam, now in possession of important documents that could reveal a massive conspiracy, being hunted by a hitman called Jonjo. During his restless escape he receives help from a prostitute called Mhouse and her son Ly-on as well as the police officer Rita Nashe. On the other side the reader gets to know the head of the pharmacy company, Ingram Fryzer, that the murdered scientist worked for. Each of the characters has its very own problems that affect the whole story. A wild chase around the river Thames begins that leads to Adam being homeless and living under a bridge and in a park for a while. This doesn’t stop him from finding out about the wrongdoings of the company though.

The book reveals the life within a metropolis where everything has its advantages and disadvantages. Kindred uses this to hide from his follower, but Jonjo does the same to stay low. He meets the lowlifes such as Mhouse and her friend Mohammed and the drug-addicted Vladimir of which he will later take his second identity in order to have better cover to hide as well as to further investigate on the case. The CEO of Calenture-Deutz, said pharmacy company, lives a very comfortable life that is slightly disturbed by his health problems as well as the death of his best immunologist right before the release of a new drug.

William Boys gives a very detailed insight into the lives of his characters, developing side-stories as the plot goes, and making the reader an all-knowing observer of the action taking place. This makes the book rather hard to read but quite entertaining and intense as well. Scenes are usually written upon the perspective of one character only that may encounter another one during the scene. The next scene could either be a direct follow-up of the one beforehand or be taking the reader to completely different place and side-story. Boyd masters the art of telling a story from different point-of-views by giving the reader the ability to watch and understand the action from all angles.

With topics such as public camera observation and recording of all kinds of electronic activities the book really hits the nerve of the current public discussions.

In this book you will see London from a perspective you have most likely never seen it before. So who thinks that he can cope with this sometimes confusing method to tell an exciting and tense thriller should definitely try this work by William Boyd.

Johannes Marx

Lennart Kueck - Ordinary Thunderstorms Book Review

ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS
BOOK REVIEW

                                                      Novel by William Boyd

                                                   Review by Lennart Kueck


"Ordinary Thunderstorms" is a novel by William Boyd, a British author, which was first published in 2009. The novel is a fictional thriller of approximately 400 pages. It takes place in London and works with a lot of different themes, of which the most important are identity and anonymity.

The novel is written in a way that emphasize different theses. The main one is that in a big and diverse city, like London, one can just disappear and change his identity without the mass noticing. The main character Adam goes through this process, which is described in many ways. Especially the point that the young man Adam loses everything and is forced to reinvent himself by leaving his identity behind and adapting a new one is, from my point of view, what the Author wants to express. The story creates the fictional world in which there is no other way for Adam to live.

This theme is especially marked by the narration. The different points of view presented in the novel emphasize the difficulties of disappearing in a city without the right conditions.
The omniscient narrator enables the reader to overview the situation and be part of the whole city-life around the main plot of Adam, which, so to say, "sneaks" through the novel.

The novel also presents the metropolis London and its inhabitants. This is obviously connected to the theme of disappearing. There are many places and people described in the novel and especially the last is interesting, since there are different social classes represented in the novel. In side plots which happen at the same time as the story of Adam the reader gets to know many people like Rita, a policewoman, Mhouse, a prostitute, and Ingram, the chairman of a big pharmacy company.

What Boyd mainly wants to do with his novel is answer the question how a person could lose everything, even his identity, and not be able to get it back at the current time. Therefore he creates the world and fills it with different characters, creating their fates, so that they all come together in a rounded plot. In an interview Boyd said that for him it was most interesting to look at the life of a "non-person" as he calls it. He says his book covers the idea of a "modern nightmare" of losing your identity.

These themes brought together, so I think, give the essence of Ordinary Thunderstorms. It is a fascinating thriller, which does not just show us how to survive in a big city, but it covers all questions and even builds up a possible scenario for the question: "What happens when you lose everything?" (William Boyd said this in an interview)

I recommend and, for all fans of fiction literature, I even advise you to read this book once since it covers such a unique area of themes that not many authors have written about. Boyd has made up a great scenario for the story and presents it in a very interesting way. The plot holds something new all the time you start a new chapter and, although the story itself might not be too realistic, Boyd manages to create an atmosphere as if you were present at that time and place.

Ordinary Thunderstorms is a piece of literature, of which kind I have never read one before. It gives the reader a rough insight into London living and social issues, besides providing a tense story about losing and gaining identity, which is a very up to date theme. Therefore I can, so I think, give a positive feedback on the novel and recommend you to read it, if you have spare time.

Ordinary Thunderstorms - Story of a Survivalist

The book “Ordinary Thunderstorms” is William Boyd's tenth book. His former books included the Costa Award- winning novel “Restless”. “Ordinary Thunderstorms”was first published in 2009 in Great Britain by the publishing house Bloomsbury. The main plot is about living in a metropolis and a survivalist. This thriller is described by Craig Caine, TLS Books of the Year, as “Thrilling, hilarious, intricately plotted and terrifically readable”.

Being in London for a job interview, the climatologist Adam Kindred gets coincidentally involved with a pharmaceutical company. Suddenly he looses everything at on single blow . From now on he tries to make a life underground, always in hiding because there might still be the possibility to get caught by a hit man or the police. Struggling to survive in a twenty-first century Metropolis without leaving any traces, he slowly discovers different quarters,classes and lifestyles. All of them summing up to one big picture: London. As you cannot walk unnoticed around a city forever, Adam gets to know more than just one interesting person. The only question left in the end is whether he will ever find his way back to his old life again.

The author, William Boyd, was first of all inspired by London's river, the Thames. He had read an article about the fact that the water-police fishes fifty to sixty bodies a year out of it. It was not only the river but also the corpses and London itself that led him to write “Ordinary Thunderstorms”.The plot is has not been set in any particular year so one can still put oneself in the character's position. The novel itself is written from various points-of-view. Not only from Adam Kindred's but also from the people that play a rather large role in his underground life. Every single one of these characters are non-static and even their characteristics are outlined perfectly clear. There is not one person similar to another in this book. Boyd keeps adding little details to them and the plot itself which makes it very believable.

Reading “Ordinary Thunderstorms” was very interesting. It did not only have a very entangled plot but it was also interesting to see how the characters interact with one another, not knowing anything about its opponent while you already know what they are like. This does not only include how they talk to each other but also how one person takes the other one in with its looks and everything:

“He looked an innocuous man –

tall, in a dark suit with a thick head of grey hair –

Adam found it hard to stir up any emotion against him”

Another interesting point to me is how easy it is to gain anonymity in today’s world but how hard it is to survive anonymously.

“He had thought about using his card to extract more

extra cash from the many cash machines he passed

but he had sensed instinctively that the only way to

avoid detection in a modern twenty-first-century city

was to take no advantage of the services it offered –

telephonic, financial, social, transportational,

welfare-related and so on.[…]

You became invisible or at least transparent...”

Kindred tries really hard to stay undetected but realises at some point that even he has made a mistake. A mistake that could have a serious aftermath. But it is not only him who wanders around London anonymously. There are about 600 people in London that go missing every year. All these little facts Boyd inserts into his novel make it all the more interesting as it comes closer to reality.

Catching are also the descriptions of London. If you had been there once it is very easy to imagine some of the places even though a few of them are only fiction.

The weakness of the novel is to me that there never seems to be a climax in this book. The plot, as interesting as it may be, does not have a point where it gets more exciting. It is more like narration of someone else's life. Also at some points the story drags on a bit. It appears to get lost a little bit in the details.

In summary, I would highly recommend this book to those who do not only have a favour for thrillers and entangled plots but who are also interested in how to live in a metropolis even if this includes the underground-living. As any other book its weaknesses. But they do not outdo the strengths in any way.

Cornell Schreiber

Book review - Dorothee Schuylenburg

Ordinary Thunderstorms

-Book review-

The novel “Ordinary Thunderstorms” is written by William Boyd and was first published in Great Britain 2009. It encloses 403 pages and costs 5,99£ in a soft-cover edition. The story is about the inconvenient side of living in a metropolis.

The main character Adam Kindred, a climatologist from America, is in London for a job interview. Afterwards he has a conversation with Philipp Wang, who leaves his documents in the restaurant. Adam trys to hand them back. As he arrives in Wang's apartment, he finds him dead with a bread knife in his side. Adam unplugs the knife and leaves his finger prints behind on the knife. This act is the beginning of a long hide and seek conducting Adam to the most different parts of London. While he is fleeing from the police, Adam gets to know several other characters and realizes the big complot he is, against his wishes, now involved in.

William Boyd focuses in his novel on several main themes: On the one hand he illustrates miscellaneous characters and the question of identity and on the other hand he puts the morally conflict of profit or health. Furthermore one important theme showed by Boyd is the special side of living in a metropolis.

The implementation of the variety of the characters is especially shown by the two women Rita Nashe and Mhouse. Two conflictive personalities who both meet Adam have a very different social background. Mhouse as a prostitute knows the dark side of London and has to struggle for her and her son's life. In contrast Rita, the charming police women, fights against the illegal and dark side of the city. Furthermore the persons “Jonjo”, Ingram Fryzer and Vladimir, all from different classes of society, are terrificly portrayed.

The question of identity isn't shown the first time by William Boyd. He seems to be fascinated by the idea of surviving undetected in a modern world of CCTV cameras, mobile phones and credit cards. The chance to have no identity or the one from someone else is only given in large cities like London, New York or Hamburg. But if somebody loses his identity, maybe a new problem will appear: The person will probably come into an identity crisis, like Adam does.

In my opinion William Boyd's “Ordinary Thunderstorms” is a very exciting thriller. Boyd uses many points of view of the different characters to make the story more interesting. He impresses the reader by a complex and multifarious plot and gives one the chance to make up own thoughts about a potential ending.

Book Review - Teresa Temming

Book Review on ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ by William Boyd

‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ written by the author William Boyd was first published in 2009 and deals with living in a metropolis and the mystery of identity in the 21. century.

Adam Kindred moves from the United States to London for a job interview. In a restaurant the climatologist meets a man who turns out to change is life completely. Through coincidences he suddenly needs to go underground to hide from the police,  looses everything he once possessed, and, in this way, has to put up with the life of a homeless person. He learns to adapt to the society so that he seemed invisible to everyone. Later in the novel he gets in contact with various people and, furthermore, gets behind a pharmaceutical scandal. In his life of vagrancy, subterfuge and pursuit he finds in Rita, a police woman, new foothold and tries to begin a new life.

William Boyd forms a world of assassination, conspiracy and low-life brutality in ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’. Hereby is London the setting of the story of which the river is a major element throughout the novel. The Thames symbolizes the fascinating mystery of London where about 50 to 60 dead bodies are found in the river every year. In fact, it is the question of identity and anonymity that is raised in ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’.

‘No cheques, no bills, no references, no mobile phones, only cash – nothing. That’s how you disappear in the twenty-first century – you just refuse to take part  in it.’

William Boyd introduces Adam Kindred as an example to reflect the life of an anonymous person that looses any support in his life and decides that making him invisible is the only chance. He is the man in the novel who keeps fighting in all struggling situations and accepts any risk as long as he keeps his freedom.

‘He had to stay free at all costs, if he were to save himself. To remain free seemed the only course of action he could and should take. […] the individual freedom he currently possessed was unbelievable precious to him […].’

Furthermore, it is important to mention that Boyd brings up the idea of reinvention of people in a city. London seems to be the perfect example for a big city which leaves enough space to every individual to change his new identity and to create himself new. Adam Kindred, the former climatologist, who continues with his life despite all terrible incidents that happened to him, can be taken as a good example. London leads Adam through his life crisis by offering him what he needs – invisibility. At some point he is able to reinvent himself and, in this way, becomes happy again. The past does not play an important role; he can be whoever he chooses to be in a big city like London.

‘Only London was big and heartless enough to contain these lost multitudes, the vanished population of the United Kingdom – only London could swallow them up without a qualm, without demur.’

‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ is in this respect a remarkable book as it provides a detailed insight of the Londoner society. William Boyd depicts various strata of the British metropolitan life, revealed by the many different people the protagonist gets in contact with such as the CEO, the contract killer, the police woman and vagrants and, consequently, presents London extremely vivid and, thus, makes the novel attractive to read. The author emphasizes the clear division between the social layers and, on the whole, underscores the issue of social differences in a metropolis. Moreover, he portrays another significant topic particularly in the 21. Century; it is the question of identity. What does it mean to go underground? What consequences does it have? What kind of role do the police and CCTVs play in a modern high-tech world? The author of ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ deals with these questions and makes the book’s protagonist cope with these concerns.

‘[…] all of London’s police would be looking for [Adam Kindred], CCTV footage would be being studied […]. […] He was a wanted man but he was nowhere to be found. […] He had gone underground.’

More importantly, it is how William Boyd introduces the characters that make the book captivating and engaging. The reader is drawn to the novel due to the dynamic characters that give space for sudden changes in the book and makes it exciting for the reader until the last page. The figures are vividly portrayed since they are well-described and through thought but also because the author adapts the language to each character. Therefore, the reader can easily familiarize himself with the novel and is able to identify himself with the characters.

Nevertheless, the book contains certain disadvantages which is why the book is readable, however, not extraordinary. The idea behind the novel is rather complex and not very well converted to the book. William Boyd could have shortened it to the core of his idea to stick to it through the whole book. Because now there are too many issues the book deals with. Furthermore, it is not very well divided as each chapter is written from one character’s point of view. Consequently, it is slightly confusing and difficult to follow the context.  

The author’s purpose of the book, however, is actually quite impressing and intends to draw a picture of London in the 21. century. ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ seems especially appealing to the reader for it is on the one hand an exciting thriller but on the other, in depths, is concerned with problems of a modern, urban society.  I would recommend ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ to those people who are interested in reading an easy book which is not too demanding but uses a nice flowing language with an attractive, stirring story. 

Teresa Temming