I was agog to read this, since it had been so talked about- and it's certainly lived up to expectations for me. It's a simple enough narrative in many ways; the story of young Asian men in Hounslow, trying to be rudeboys but actually living in comfortable houses, driving their mum's silver Beemers around while pretending they're baad. The narrator, Jas, speaks in a frenetic mix of patois, Britasian, hip hop, Punjabi, and a bit of everything else thrown in; I wasn't ever sure exactly what dialogue was lifted from the streets and what was entirely made up, but it doesn't matter- it's hugely enjoyable, sometimes extremely alarming, and so fast I had to read it all at once in case I lost the plot. The ending, I have to admit, I didn't see coming at all; but it made me shout out loud with surprised laughter, on a miserable day, so that's got to be good. It's not without faults- far too much is explained by characters through their (sometimes unnecessarily long-winded) dialogue, but it held me all the way through, and the vividness of the detail is great. I'd love to see what Malkani, an FT journalist, comes up with next. And I'd like to know what other WWers made of it too...