[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=\u00a0\u00bb4_4″][et_pb_text]Candice Carty-Williams\u2019s \u201cPeople Person\u201d takes readers for a spin through south London in a gold Jeep that its owner, Cyril Pennington, treasures more than his five children. The Pennington siblings \u2014 Nikisha, Danny, Dimple, Lizzie and Prynce \u2014 are each raised by a different mother, with the exception of the eldest and youngest. The novel opens with Cyril taking his brood out for ice cream to awkwardly introduce them to each other. Then he promptly leaves them to live out the rest of their youth.
\n\u201cAlthough he was unknowingly a master of detachment,\u201d Carty-Williams writes in the opening pages, \u201cCyril saw himself as more of a people person than a father.\u201d Indeed, while Cyril\u2019s gregarious persona wins him points with the postman, it does nothing for his relationship with his five children, who remain estranged from both their father and each other as they grow up in south London\u2019s diverse neighbourhoods \u2014 Brixton, Battersea and Clapham among them.
\nFast forward some 15 years and Dimple \u2014 Cyril\u2019s middle child \u2014 an unsuccessful lifestyle influencer and the novel\u2019s protagonist, is dealing with a nasty break-up. When her ex-boyfriend Kyron comes over to admonish her for posting about their relationship, he slips on a slick of vegetable oil. It appears to have killed him but Dimple feels unable to call an ambulance: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just that her mum was a barrister and that a body in the house would be totally disastrous for her, but the list of reasons Dimple didn\u2019t trust the police were obscenely long.\u201d
\nSo she rings her big sister, who elects to involve all the siblings. They agree to hide the body in a building site but, as they\u2019re ready to deposit Kyron, they realise he has disappeared; he is not dead after all.
\nAmid the unlikely drama in the middle of which Dimple and her siblings find themselves, Carty-Williams explores the impact absent fathers can have and the ways in which sibling relationships are complicated by a common denominator who remains out of the picture.
\nCarty-Williams excels at taking us inside the heads of unpolished, vulnerable, flawed characters, from headstrong eldest sibling Nikisha, who knows better than everyone else, to her easy going half-brother Danny, who lets negativity slide off him as he moves on from a chequered past.
\nThis is a highly personal book \u2013 Carty-Williams has explained it was born of a conversation between her and her older sister Selena around sibling loyalty \u2013 and the world of the Penningtons is infused with humour.
\nThere are good contrasts between the siblings, with a range of interesting characters. Dimple is the main character, who is quick to panic and quick to cry. She can be rather self-centred, but her lack of self-confidence is what makes things awkward for her. Nikisha, the oldest, is tough and protective of her family. She is quick to help out and bossy enough to get things done. The youngest, Prynce, is a dreamer who is open to anything and lacks direction. Danny is driven after events of the past to protect his family and work hard. He\u2019s wary of trouble, but knows family is important. Lizzie doesn\u2019t really want a bar of any of her siblings, and tells them frequently. She\u2019s more of a closed book than the others, independent and rather prickly. All together, they make for an interesting mix.
\nThe Pennington siblings truly bond over their persistent desire to win the affection of their father, who makes occasional cameos in their adult lives. Cyril is absent at best and negligent at worst, but his children can\u2019t seem to distance themselves from him, often belittling their mothers\u2019 love in the process. Aptly, \u201cPeople Person\u201d is dedicated \u201cto all the single mothers. Especially the ones who try their best to raise their children with the love of two parents.\u201d In addition to sharing a Black Jamaican bus-driving father, Nikisha and Prynce are the children of a Black Jamaican mother; Lizzie\u2019s mother is Yoruba; Dimple\u2019s is Indian Jamaican; and Danny\u2019s is \u201ca friendly and more than accommodating petite white woman with a dark blond bob.\u201d
\nThe siblings\u2019 dynamics reflect the politics of ethnicity and White beauty standards: Danny\u2019s \u201cmixed\u201d features are often sneered at by his siblings, while Nikisha, the eldest, envies Dimple for getting special treatment from Cyril because \u201cher mum is one of them Indian-looking women\u201d and has \u201cgood hair.\u201d To compensate, Nikisha makes fun of Dimple\u2019s weight \u2014 one of the middle Pennington child\u2019s many insecurities. By the end of the novel, the reader is sorry to leave them and we are left wondering why did the author chose Dimple as the focus of the novel? Why was the book not divided equally between the siblings with chapters dedicated to each one, so we get to know them all at depth, Nikisha and Danny in particular deserve more focus.
\nPeople Person is a novel that not only explores family dynamics and the concept of blended family but it is also a book about ordinary human beings, full of flaws and complexities but not intentionally \u2018bad\u2019 and we the reader accept and even like them for being relatable.
\nWe have given the book 7 out of 10.
\nCarty-Williams the first black author to win book of the year at the British Book Awards for her debut book; Queenie (2019).
\nPeople Person is published by Trapeze (Hachette)<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=\u00a0\u00bb4_4″][et_pb_text]Candice Carty-Williams\u2019s \u201cPeople Person\u201d takes readers for a spin through south London in a gold Jeep that its owner, Cyril Pennington, treasures more than his five children. The Pennington siblings \u2014 Nikisha, Danny, Dimple, Lizzie and Prynce \u2014 are each raised by a different mother, with the exception of the eldest and youngest. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":11633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[106,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classifiee","category-avis","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n