Jacqueline Crooks, the Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of Fire Rush, is a singular voice in British contemporary literature. Inspired by London’s dub reggae culture of the 1970s, fusing Jamaican patois and English, for her debut Crooks fictionalised aspects of her own life while articulating the plight of some of the most vulnerable members of society. The powerful musicality of the prose elevated the work to a transcendent literary experience.
Second time around, Crooks has drawn upon these elements once again to incredible effect, but with a new narrative. Semi-autobiographical still, this time the protagonist is Jaycee, a young woman of the 1990s who has moved from a homeless hostel to live in the eponymous Sky City, a block of flats above a shopping centre. Traumatised by her past, moving on psychically is much more challenging.
When her first love, Sol, a boy from her childhood, reappears in her life it is unsettling and provoking. Her best friend, Ella-G, has relocated to New York City for a more dazzling life in music. Ella-G and Jaycee share a common bond: both are searching for their absent fathers. When Jaycee finds a clue to Ella-G’s father’s whereabouts, they embark on a trip to Atlantic City in search of resolution.
The intersection of these three characters, at this pivotal coming-of-age moment in their lives, is the nucleus of the novel, but what makes Crooks such an exceptional talent is the manner in which she unravels their story.
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Crooks is capable of creating a visceral, fully embodied imaginative world because she is so acutely tuned to the real-life particularities of societal mores, and the nuances of the subcultures that she represents. There is a hypnotic lyricism to her prose that vibrates on its own frequency. As in her debut, her expression of music is, once again, spellbinding – a great strength of Crooks that contributes so meaningfully to her work.
Sky City is the perfect second novel: an evolution and expansion of all that was excellent in her debut into a new magical literary adventure. Confident in her own authentic, unique authorial voice, Crooks is creatively ambitious but also has the talent to deliver on her inspiration; an exciting combination.
Helen Cullen is the author of The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually and the forthcoming Iseult
