Kevin Curran (2)

It's good to read a novel about contemporary Ireland as it actually is, and it's a shame that that's still relatively rare. Beatsploitation is the story of Rob, a young secondary school teacher in Balbriggan and member of struggling band The Terrors, and his Angolan immigrant student, John/Kembo (the boy uses an English name alongside his given name in the belief that it'll ease his transition into Irish society).

John's life is made difficult on multiple fronts - he is bullied by classmates, intimidated by his family and exploited for his musical ability by local hip-hop crews. Unsurprisingly, he is drawn towards a teacher who seems to be taking an interest in him, not knowing that Rob is also exploiting him, secretly stealing beats that John has composed and passing them off as his own to the rest of The Terrors.

Rob sees that John is suffering in his life, and no one, from the subtly racist school principal to the overtly racist local community, has any interest in helping. But in his guilt and cowardice Rob turns away from John, with terrible consequences.

The stakes are high, and the novel does a good job in establishing that. However the story suffers from the fact that John is the only really interesting character. A lot of the drama revolves around changes happening within Rob, but I found him, his band and his love triangle with two cartoonishly one-dimensional women very boring, and didn't feel in any way invested in his potential redemption or growth as a person because he just wasn't an interesting enough character to begin with. The novel only properly engaged me when it got out of the claustrophobic, often cliched confines of Rob's perspective and observed things like the tension between old and new in Balbriggan, the just-managed chaos which is the reality of much of secondary school teaching today and, most of all, the character of John. John is not sugarcoated - he is often violent, stubborn, childish and annoying, but he is also vivid, courageous and funny, with a savant-like passion for music that quickly outdoes the knowledge of his obsessive teacher.

The reality of life as an asylum seeker is touched upon, as John's family's concern for their future legal status informs everything John does - even a minor misstep could ruin their chances of staying. A veneer of inclusivity barely hides the school and community's indifference and even hostility to the plight of families like John's. But he and his friends settle in as best they can - the best part of the novel for me was a conversation Rob overhears between John and a friend of Congolese origin as they nerdishly discuss beats, rap, hip-hop, the pros and cons of various local crews and mercilessly tease each other. It has the authenticity of observed experience, and the dialogue just sings.

Moments like that indicate to me that this author has the potential to write a work that really captures the people of Ireland today. This isn't the work - as well as Rob being a limited character, remaining in his voice throughout the narrative leads to (probably realistic to his character, but nevertheless unsettling) racialised descriptions of black characters that really leave a bad taste in the mouth (Especially as it seems Rob is supposed to be less racist than other Irish characters!). I'd be interesting in reading another work by this author if it explored the point of view of a broader range of characters, looked at societal conflict in more depth and maybe even included the odd fully-rounded female character (gasp!)

Verdict: Flawed, but the goods are there, they just need bringing out.… (mais)