I found this at a Little Free Library and knew nothing about it. Although it was all in dialect, and I am sure I missed alot of meaning, I found it a really engaging read. It is less a novel and more a series of vignettes but they are very evocative. Although it is the story of West Indian migrants to London in the 1950s (the Windrush generation), I think it could be true of any of the other immigrant groups there today. It was funny and sad and very human and I really enjoyed reading it.

Um die Figur des Moses Aloeatta, der nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg aus Westindien nach London migriert, baut der trinidarische Autor Samuel Selvon (1923 - 1994) seinen kleinen, feinen Roman über die schwarz-migrantische community im London der 1950er Jahre: zu ihm kommen alle neuen Einwanderer, die Arbeit, Wohnung und Rat brauchen, wie man im nebligen, kalten London zurecht kommen kann, wenn man als Elektriker, Ölarbeiter oder Tunichtgut in den britischen Nachkriegs-Kolonien keine Perspektive mehr fand und den Verlockungen der postimperialen Metropole stattgab.
'Die Taugenichtse' ist warmherzig, ohne sentimental - also kitschig - zu sein. In kunstvoller Verschränkung und mit feiner Ironie erzählt der Autor von den verschiedenen Überlebens-Strategien, die diese Luftmenschen in fremder Umgebung entwickelten: von der assimilierten Überanpassung über¿s Durchwurschteln ohne fast nichts bis zum grandiosen Scheitern aufgrund naiven Größenwahns reichen die Lebensentwürfe dieser sich selbst als 'Mokkas' bezeichnenden Migranten, deren unterschiedliche Herkunftsländer immer auch Quelle konkurrenter Selbstbehauptung sind.
Miriam Mandelkow übersetzt die ausgezeichneten Dialoge dieses Buches wie auch insgesamt den Tonfall des migrantischen argot, slang, in ein ein zeitgemäßes Deutsch, das an die - wenn auch später entstandene - Musik von Linton Kwesi Johnson erinnert: 'Inglan is a bitch'.- ( )

The Lonely Londoners is a 1956 novel by Trinidadian author Samuel Selvon and is about immigrant life in London. It’s focus is on the poor, working-class black people from the Caribbean who came to England after World War II for economic reasons. They came believing that England would offer opportunity, education and a better way of living but unfortunately what they found was prejudice, discrimination and a lack of good jobs and decent housing.

The novel is comprised of several short stories about various West Indian characters and their experiences. Written in a colorful dialect that gives the book a sense of authenticity, the author captures their feelings of loneliness, isolation and alienation. As it was mostly male immigrants that came to London at this time, the characters in the book are mostly male and females are more-or-less peripheral characters.

The Lonely Londoners was interesting as it captured a particular perspective regarding the post-war influx of Caribbean immigrants, but I did find the various stories were too short for me to become fully attached to the characters. There is no real plot to speak of, as the book consists of loosely connected vignettes, but although quite dark I did find quite a bit of humor was used as well. ( )

One of those books I stumbled on and was so pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. The style Selvon chose to write the book was easy to slip into and added so much to the tale of Moses and the Caribbean immigrants to London in the 1950s. The language puts this author up there with Anthony Burgess and Bukowski, and makes you feel like you are really there with the characters. Later on in the book, Selvon wrote a passage of narrative with no breaks nor full stops in it, that I found amazing, this time reminding me of Kerouac. Definitely an author of great talent. It was interesting to learn about London life in the 1950s - the black snot, the pound that could buy you accommodation, food and heat. Some of the characters really made the book - Tanty stands out by far - don't we all wish we had a relation like her? Little things, like the nickname "Five Past Twelve" because his skin was blacker than midnight. The plot was make up with descriptions of each of the characters and instances in their lives. I was highly entertained when they all got together for a party and diverged in one place. The atmosphere of the whole book was very funny, but you could feel an undertone on tragedy, very real. I sincerely hope to meet some of these characters again in later books. ( )

This was surprisingly easy to read, despite the Caribbean dialect and grammar, even the eight or so pages with no punctuation at all. It was amusing in places (I enjoyed the pigeon snatch and the moment when Tolroy's entire family got off the boat train particularly), but also sad and hopeless at the same time. ( )