Hi guys, I’ve just posted a review for one of Peter Lawrence’s new e-books available to buy on Kindle at Amazon:
I thought it might be of interest:
Smoke and Dust is an historical epic that follows the journey of a young man, Ben Johnson, from rural farm-hand in nineteenth century Hampshire to a British Army posting in Southern Africa at the turn of the century.
The book is a weighty 125,000 words and covers a timespan of some 60 years. This book is not for the faint-hearted, instead author Peter Lawrence carefully paints a vivid world that the reader will likely have very little familiarity with. Peter’s expertise and heritage (being brought up in both Zambia and England) are evident here and there’s a meticulous attention to historical detail throughout the book.
Smoke and Dust is a character-led novel and, in common with his television and film work, Peter’s characters are well painted and his affinity with dialogue is evident throughout. Not least in some sublime regional dialogue during the first third of the book.
The central protagonist, Ben Johnson, is a troubled, yet likeable character. He’s deeply flawed, but acts with (mostly) good intent throughout the novel. He’s easily manipulated and, indeed, spends the majority of the novel suffering under the misfortunes inflicted by more dominant characters that form his world. That his own shortcomings precipitate this makes him all the more engaging.
The story isn’t without controversy and the central plot begins with the relationship between half-brother and sister – a device contentious in communities around the world in the twenty-first century, and ever more so in the nineteenth. In his intimate descriptions of their encounters, Peter tastefully shows proficiency for the semi-erotic, treading the fine line between the embarrassing and the vanilla. A trait equally echoed when the book becomes ever more violent as the story moves to Africa; on both occasions the passages exist for the benefit of realism, less than shock value.
As referenced, Smoke and Dust is longer than your average e-book, not least because Peter adopts an incredibly unique narrative style for this novel. The last two thirds of the book, in particular, feature a large amount of information that serves to introduce the reader to the world Peter sets out to reveal. It’s an unconventional approach, and takes a couple of chapters to get used to, but the pay off is more than worth it. Indeed, being, as I was, so unfamiliar with the region (or timeline), it was difficult to imagine how I could have taken so much from the story without such background exposition.
What I particularly admire here is that Peter Lawrence has surely made the most of the medium he’s chosen for the release of this book: the Kindle. In an electronic medium, the need for a huge cull on word count is redundant, and at no point during the reading of this book does Smoke and Dust outstay its welcome. Rather, one gets the feeling that Peter is all too aware that the book could be shorter, that introductory passages could be condensed, but there’s a self-assured confidence in the writing and I get the impression that Peter’s not aiming to please ‘mass paperback’ audiences, rather to immerse and reward the more discerning and patient reader. Peter’s mandate seems as much to inform the reader of the worlds at play in the novel as to tell the story itself. In this respect, the book reminds the reader of a science fiction novel where distant worlds need to be explained to the reader. Perhaps, more poignantly, we should consider why colonial conflicts like the Matabele Wars should have become so forgotten in the first place?
What surprised me when reading Smoke and Dust, and knowing Peter Lawrence’s background in film and television, was how difficult the narrative would surely be to adapt for the screen (think the entire six Star Wars movies in one book), and, again, Peter crafts a story that’s perfect for the written form. His proficiency in painting filmic scenes in the minds’ eye is, however, all too evident and the backdrops of Zimbabwe are realised in magnificent detail through words alone.
Smoke and Dust is a book about both a character and continent, both neglected and abused, both capable of brilliance. Peter does the time period great justice, and the protagonist’s utter acceptance of his new home and countrymen sits at the centre of the tale. One of the book’s most memorable quotes epitomises its sentiment:
“If men like you return from where you came, there is no hope for this land or for our people because, if men like you return, only the thieves, the whores and the murderers will be left. Only those who think that my people are as monkeys, to be laughed at; as crocodiles to be exterminated; as slaves, to be beaten and abused. But if men like you remain, perhaps our two people can learn to live together and the warriors who died, yours and mine, will not have died uselessly. Their spirits will rest easy.”