Read a couple days ago in one mammoth 3-hr sitting; couldn't put it down!

The narrative, such as it is, is secondary. What I love about books like this is their descriptive language of the scenery and characters, the grim light they shine on the way ordinary people live their lives. I enjoyed, for example, the way that the author often split off from a chronological telling of events to put in a couple pages of purely descriptive prose. The highlight of this was the couple of pages that discussed "concrete" and what living in concrete does to people, how it seeps into their blood and how they can never escape it.

I would say that the book is not for everyone, both for this focus on descriptive storytelling and also for the grim and realistic nature of said descriptions. I also worry that people who haven't lived on estates will read this and take (what I brazenly consider to be) the wrong message from it: that estates are no-go areas full of dangerous immigrants. This is not the author's fault, however, he goes to great lengths to highlight how the white residents of Flower City, with their padlocked doors and guard dogs, played an important part in making the place what it became.