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!