Nightcrawling (2022)
Why this one?
I’ve been dipping my toes in a few of the longlisted books from the 2022 Booker Longlist. For various reasons I’ve no intention of reading them all, but I’m just cherrypicking a few that take my fancy.
This one called to me for the fairly obvious reason that Mottley is the youngest ever author to feature on the Booker longlist. She finished the book ageed seventeen and at the time of publication she was still only nineteen. Which is fairly remarkable. It also has a rather attractive pink cover, as you can see above.
Thoughts, etc.
Nightcrawling tells the story of 17-year-old Kiara, a black girl living in poverty in Oakland, California. Her situation is unenviable: her father dead, her mother imprisoned for a fairly horrifying reason, and taking responsibility for both her feckless aspiring-rapper brother and her virtually abandoned young neighbour Trevor. In desperation, she takes to the streets, where she is eventually picked up and abused by a gang of truly repulsive police officers and eventually finds herself at the centre of a court case against the police force.
It’s largely inspired by a very similar case that took place in Oakland (Mottley’s home) in 2015. Mottley was inspired to imagine the perspective of the young girl at the centre of the case, with Nightcrawling the impressive result. It’s a timely novel that was at the centre of a frenzied bidding war from publishers, and has seen Mottley showcased by Oprah and celebrated by the likes of Dave Eggers and Ruth Ozeki.
While her age at the time of writing is hugely, hugely impressive, I tried not to let it colour my perspective too much. The novel’s themes are powerful and relevant and would be just as much so whoever had written them. It takes you into a world that is hard to fully imagine and presents it lucidly, assuredly and without resort to cliche. There’s an impressive level of restraint and understatement to the writing: given the subject matter, it might be expected to veer towards anger and polemic, but instead it holds back, leaning instead towards the matter-of-fact. The writing style emphasizes that this is everyday life for Kiara and many like her. Exceptional horror to those observing, but accepted reality to its protagonist.
It’s a tough read in the sense that you’re left feeling extremely powerless - or at best, like the lawyer who takes on Kiara’s case, well-intentioned but ultimately incapable of fully understanding Kiara’s world or making any material difference to it. It’s strong on exposing the brutal reality of racially-driven inequality, shining light on under-represented voices, and damning an institutionally racist police force. Despite all this it manages to avoid feeling excessively bleak in tone: it’s surprisingly brightly written, with slim slivers of hope and optimism found in the unlikeliest of places, largely driven by the few meaningful human relationships Kiara has.
For me, there was something perhaps slightly lacking in terms of wow factor in the writing - it’s fairly conventionally structured and linear - that stops it from being a bigger scorer. But as a debut novelist Mottley arrives fully-formed, with a hugely impressive and powerful novel that deserves to reach a wide audience and make waves. I’m looking forward to reading more from her in future.
Score
7.5
My hunch is that this is a potential shortlist book, but maybe not a winner. Either way, I wouldn’t complain as it’s better than plenty of books that have won in the past. How do those of you who’ve read more of the longlist feel about this one?
Next up
I’m jumping back to my Women’s Prize read through with 2005’s massively successful We Need To Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver.
