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Best friends and flatmates Foxy-T and Ruji-Babes run the E-Z Call Telephone and Internet shop in the heart of Bangladeshi East London. It's a twelve-hour day running the E-Z Call and Foxy-T and Ruji-Babes don't get out much, but they have each other and eat their take-outs by candlelight . . .
And all seems cool until Zafar Iqbal turns up on their doorstep looking for his grandad. Fresh from Feltham Young Offenders Centre and with a taste for the weed, Zafar's presence rapidly upsets the balance at the E-Z Call . . .
'One of the best London novels you'll ever get to read.' Toby Litt, Sunday Herald
And all seems cool until Zafar Iqbal turns up on their doorstep looking for his grandad. Fresh from Feltham Young Offenders Centre and with a taste for the weed, Zafar's presence rapidly upsets the balance at the E-Z Call . . .
'One of the best London novels you'll ever get to read.' Toby Litt, Sunday Herald
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published July 17, 2003
4 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Tony White
18 books33 followersTony White (born 1964, Farnham, Surrey) is a British novelist, writer and editor. Best known for his novel Foxy-T (Faber, 2003), described by Toby Litt in 2006 as his 'favourite British novel from the past ten years', White has been called a ‘serious, engaging voice of the modern city'. From 2010–2018 he was chair of London’s arts radio station Resonance FM.
White's most recent novel is The Fountain in the Forest (Faber, 2018).
White's first novels Road Rage (Low Life Books, 1997), Satan Satan Satan (Attack Books!, 1999), and Charlieunclenorfolktango (Codex, 1999) – 'bizarre, depressing and unreadable' (LRB) – have been located on the ‘marginal terrain of avant-pulp’, where writers such as Stewart Home and Victor Headley 'channel the energy and drive of pornography, the skinhead paperbacks of Richard Allen and the cartoon anarchism of Leo Baxendale's Beano comics to escape the stylistic and rhetorical corsets of the metropolitan novel'. In 2006 the Russian publisher, T-ough Press faced criminal prosecution for publishing Russian language translations of Satan Satan Satan and Road Rage.
Both the title and the triangular relationship at the heart of Foxy-T recall D. H. Lawrence's 1922 novella The Fox, but it was White's use of a hybridised, street language of London's East End in which the novel is entirely written, which drew most attention.[6] Some reviewers referred to it as ‘broken, rhythmic patois’, or ‘Benglish’, and White was interviewed about his use of language by Ed Stourton on Radio 4’s Today programme. White himself has written that it was the
“language that I was hearing all around me in east London at the time, where white, Asian and other mainly (but not exclusively) young people were adopting or hybridising Black British language and in so doing were disrupting what had been the very necessary identity politics of the 1970s and 80s: a disruption typified for me by young Bangladeshi rudeboys calling each other ‘Rasta’ and most easily illustrated by the fact that it became impossible to determine the ethnicity of an unseen speaker (e.g. someone sitting behind you on the bus) by the sound of their voice.”
White’s novella, Dicky Star and the Garden Rule (Forma, 2012), was commissioned to accompany a series of works by the artists Jane and Louise Wilson reflecting upon the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Set in Leeds it was written using an Oulipo-style constraint, in this case a 'mandated vocabulary,' with each daily chapter told using all of the answers to the Guardian Quick Crossword from that day in 1986.
Another novella, Missorts Volume II (Situations, 2012) was published as a free ebook to accompany White's Missorts app, a permanent, GPS-triggered, immersive soundwork for mobile phones that is activated in the Redcliffe area of Bristol as a public art work. Missorts Volume II follows the lives of four characters affected by a derelict former Royal Mail sorting office adjacent to Bristol Temple Meads railway station.
White co-edited the short story collection Croatian Nights (Serpent's Tail, 2005), with Borivoj Radaković and Matt Thorne, which featured both British, Croatian and Serbian authors, and Britpulp! (Sceptre, 1999). His own short stories have appeared in various periodicals, exhibition catalogues and collections including All Hail the New Puritans (4th Estate), edited by Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thorne.
Other Work
In 2006 White’s Another Fool in the Balkans: In the Footsteps of Rebecca West (Cadogan, 2006) was published; a travelogue 'from Belgrade to Split, reporting the words of a people confused by shame, pride and hope, trying to make sense of brutal murder and hatred, managing to create something universally valuable from their lives and their history' in the post-Yugoslav republics.
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Whi...
White's most recent novel is The Fountain in the Forest (Faber, 2018).
White's first novels Road Rage (Low Life Books, 1997), Satan Satan Satan (Attack Books!, 1999), and Charlieunclenorfolktango (Codex, 1999) – 'bizarre, depressing and unreadable' (LRB) – have been located on the ‘marginal terrain of avant-pulp’, where writers such as Stewart Home and Victor Headley 'channel the energy and drive of pornography, the skinhead paperbacks of Richard Allen and the cartoon anarchism of Leo Baxendale's Beano comics to escape the stylistic and rhetorical corsets of the metropolitan novel'. In 2006 the Russian publisher, T-ough Press faced criminal prosecution for publishing Russian language translations of Satan Satan Satan and Road Rage.
Both the title and the triangular relationship at the heart of Foxy-T recall D. H. Lawrence's 1922 novella The Fox, but it was White's use of a hybridised, street language of London's East End in which the novel is entirely written, which drew most attention.[6] Some reviewers referred to it as ‘broken, rhythmic patois’, or ‘Benglish’, and White was interviewed about his use of language by Ed Stourton on Radio 4’s Today programme. White himself has written that it was the
“language that I was hearing all around me in east London at the time, where white, Asian and other mainly (but not exclusively) young people were adopting or hybridising Black British language and in so doing were disrupting what had been the very necessary identity politics of the 1970s and 80s: a disruption typified for me by young Bangladeshi rudeboys calling each other ‘Rasta’ and most easily illustrated by the fact that it became impossible to determine the ethnicity of an unseen speaker (e.g. someone sitting behind you on the bus) by the sound of their voice.”
White’s novella, Dicky Star and the Garden Rule (Forma, 2012), was commissioned to accompany a series of works by the artists Jane and Louise Wilson reflecting upon the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Set in Leeds it was written using an Oulipo-style constraint, in this case a 'mandated vocabulary,' with each daily chapter told using all of the answers to the Guardian Quick Crossword from that day in 1986.
Another novella, Missorts Volume II (Situations, 2012) was published as a free ebook to accompany White's Missorts app, a permanent, GPS-triggered, immersive soundwork for mobile phones that is activated in the Redcliffe area of Bristol as a public art work. Missorts Volume II follows the lives of four characters affected by a derelict former Royal Mail sorting office adjacent to Bristol Temple Meads railway station.
White co-edited the short story collection Croatian Nights (Serpent's Tail, 2005), with Borivoj Radaković and Matt Thorne, which featured both British, Croatian and Serbian authors, and Britpulp! (Sceptre, 1999). His own short stories have appeared in various periodicals, exhibition catalogues and collections including All Hail the New Puritans (4th Estate), edited by Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thorne.
Other Work
In 2006 White’s Another Fool in the Balkans: In the Footsteps of Rebecca West (Cadogan, 2006) was published; a travelogue 'from Belgrade to Split, reporting the words of a people confused by shame, pride and hope, trying to make sense of brutal murder and hatred, managing to create something universally valuable from their lives and their history' in the post-Yugoslav republics.
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Whi...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 20, 2019
I first came across White via the Britpulp! anthology, in which his short story "A0" indicated talent and promise. This, his third novel, is set in Shadwell (East End London, between Whitechapel and Wapping), and written entirely in a Cockney-Carribean-South Asian patios that is both astonishing and somewhat dizzying. The experience is not unlike the first time one reads Scots (eg. James Kelman, or more popularly, Trainspotting). There's a lot of idiom and a definite rhythm and cadence, but if you're not from that world, it can take a little getting used to. Here's just a taste from page 85: "That afternoon pass quick init. Nuff runnings fe Zafar a check all them coming and going. Couple a youth check him too init. And Zafar still have a gut feeling for them type a runnings seen and since time a pass him figure that other rude boy what stop earlier on would be plan fe reach in a bit when still knowed where Zafar a go be."
The story concerns Foxy-T and Ruji Babes (names derived from their old graffiti tags), two hardworking young women who manage the E-Z Call Telephone and Internet Centre and live together in a flat above. The place is owned by Ruji's Bangladeshi uncle, who's overseas, and her flash gangster cousin comes by periodically to mind things. Ruji is the businesswoman, good with numbers, and kind of thin and worn down. Foxy-T is the techie, master of the phones, computers, and highly voluptuous. The two make good partners, and there is much speculation as to whether their close friendship extends to the bedroom. Their orderly domain gets thrown into a tizzy when Zafar Iqbal, just out of borstal, ends up on their doorstep. His grandfather used to own the place, and he had been planning on staying there to get back on his feet. The women feel sympathetic to him, and allow him to stay the night.
Of course one night turns into one week, and soon he is coming between the two women and their setup is threatened. This is a fairly familiar plotline, although it's usually the woman coming between two male friends. Although Zafar makes himself useful about the premises, cleaning up, running errands, and so on, his extended stay is never particularly plausible. The dynamic between the threesome is never wholly realized either, and the schism is largely based on Foxy-T's vague fixation on a man she briefly saw in the store. It's all a bit hazy and unconvincing. Fortunately, things are somewhat salvaged by an ending drenched in black humor.
While the plot isn't the greatest, the book is well worth reading for its saturated language and evocative recreation in prose of the neighborhood. Once a Jewish neighborhood, Shadwell is now largely a Bangladeshi one. And the grimy cafeterias, minicab operations, off-licences, and betting shops of the '50s, '60s, and '70s have been supplanted by the video stores, Halal butchers, South Asian bakeries, and internet cafes of the '80s, '90s, and '00s. As a portrait of modern multicultural England, it ranks right up there with, yes, White Teeth.
The story concerns Foxy-T and Ruji Babes (names derived from their old graffiti tags), two hardworking young women who manage the E-Z Call Telephone and Internet Centre and live together in a flat above. The place is owned by Ruji's Bangladeshi uncle, who's overseas, and her flash gangster cousin comes by periodically to mind things. Ruji is the businesswoman, good with numbers, and kind of thin and worn down. Foxy-T is the techie, master of the phones, computers, and highly voluptuous. The two make good partners, and there is much speculation as to whether their close friendship extends to the bedroom. Their orderly domain gets thrown into a tizzy when Zafar Iqbal, just out of borstal, ends up on their doorstep. His grandfather used to own the place, and he had been planning on staying there to get back on his feet. The women feel sympathetic to him, and allow him to stay the night.
Of course one night turns into one week, and soon he is coming between the two women and their setup is threatened. This is a fairly familiar plotline, although it's usually the woman coming between two male friends. Although Zafar makes himself useful about the premises, cleaning up, running errands, and so on, his extended stay is never particularly plausible. The dynamic between the threesome is never wholly realized either, and the schism is largely based on Foxy-T's vague fixation on a man she briefly saw in the store. It's all a bit hazy and unconvincing. Fortunately, things are somewhat salvaged by an ending drenched in black humor.
While the plot isn't the greatest, the book is well worth reading for its saturated language and evocative recreation in prose of the neighborhood. Once a Jewish neighborhood, Shadwell is now largely a Bangladeshi one. And the grimy cafeterias, minicab operations, off-licences, and betting shops of the '50s, '60s, and '70s have been supplanted by the video stores, Halal butchers, South Asian bakeries, and internet cafes of the '80s, '90s, and '00s. As a portrait of modern multicultural England, it ranks right up there with, yes, White Teeth.
August 27, 2021
Prose takes a while to get used to but an enjoyable read
September 24, 2013
Waste of time.
April 22, 2007
interesting to get your head around. written in cogny! in it. for real. wicked...yeah.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews