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
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen