Lazy Eye

Racial tensions and the plight of immigrant life in 1970s England create the backdrop for this 2006 Commonwealth Prize winner for Best First Book. Frustrated by racial taunts, pelted with banana skins during his last game, black soccer player Sonny Johnson snaps, committing a violent crime on the very same day the heat wave of 1976 breaks in a massive thunderstorm. In one fell swoop, Sonny's teenage son Geoffhurst loses all the superheroes in his life: his glamorous, headstrong mother (dead), his gang the Four Aces (dissolved), his father (jailed), and the Incredible Hulk (outgrown). Only his witchcraft-working Aunt Harriet remains, and it is through her lyrical story of Caribbean immigrant life and unrequited love that we uncover the seeds of Sonny's rage. Filled with Technicolor details and street-smart language, Lazy Eye focuses on the fine line between cultural integration and personal disintegration.