Scan barcode
fiendfull's review against another edition
4.0
Disbanded Kingdom is a novel about growing up, modern day London, and infatuation. Oscar is twenty-two and lives in Kensington with his foster mother, novelist Charlotte Fontaine. He is privileged and lost, still adrift after the breakup with his only boyfriend, feeling like he doesn't belong anywhere and not connected to the political and social views of his friends or Charlotte's friends. When he meets thirtysomething Tim at Charlotte's book launch, he doesn't realise he's about to become completely infatuated with him, or that it will be more complicated than an awkward crush.
The novel is at once the story of someone young and sad trying to grow up, and the story of a city caught at a weird time, a multicultural city full of left and right as the country tries to leave the EU. The motif of breaking away is one that is found throughout the novel, making Brexit part of the coming-of-age-ness in some ways, and a counterpoint to it in others. The London depicted is modern and hipster, if occasionally a little too emphatically so, and the novel depicts privileged white people in the city, purposefully pointing out their ignorance at times. The contrast between the realness of Brexit as shown in the novel (a feature likely to make it date noticeably) and the unrealness of the privilege at times (characters just being given two thousand pounds a month isn't exactly relatable) is an interesting one, and the novel often feels a little unreal and hazy, perhaps due to Oscar's lack of direction.
Disbanded Kingdom is a good read, caught between light and heavy in a way that coming of age type novels often are, with affected youth and dissatisfaction.
The novel is at once the story of someone young and sad trying to grow up, and the story of a city caught at a weird time, a multicultural city full of left and right as the country tries to leave the EU. The motif of breaking away is one that is found throughout the novel, making Brexit part of the coming-of-age-ness in some ways, and a counterpoint to it in others. The London depicted is modern and hipster, if occasionally a little too emphatically so, and the novel depicts privileged white people in the city, purposefully pointing out their ignorance at times. The contrast between the realness of Brexit as shown in the novel (a feature likely to make it date noticeably) and the unrealness of the privilege at times (characters just being given two thousand pounds a month isn't exactly relatable) is an interesting one, and the novel often feels a little unreal and hazy, perhaps due to Oscar's lack of direction.
Disbanded Kingdom is a good read, caught between light and heavy in a way that coming of age type novels often are, with affected youth and dissatisfaction.
dyslexic_sanj's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
5.0
What a brill book to end the first month of the year on! Such a poignant and beautiful book that has been written by an equally kind and beautiful human that is Polis! Such a great debut novel and such beautiful way with words. The character Oscar is such a well shaped character. Truly a brilliant book! And can’t wait to read more of Polis’s work
More...