Face (Benjamin Zephaniah)
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| Face | |
 Face book cover. |
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| Author | Benjamin Zephaniah |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher |  Farrar, Straus and Giroux Bloomsbury |
| Publication date | 1999 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 208 pages |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-747-54154-X |
Face is the award-winning 1999 novel by British Rastafarian writer and dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who also wrote Refugee Boy and Gangsta Rap.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
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This is a story about Martin Turner. He's the leader of the Gang of Three, and the classroom joker. His friends are Marcus Thorpe (aka Mark) and Matthew (whose surname we don't know). He lives in the 'new East End' where there is a difficult brew of white, Caribbean, African and Asian families. You have to be careful what you say and who you say it to on the streets of Martin's neighborhood - not that Martin is particularly racist: "I ain't got nothing against blacks, they're just different, they dance different and everything."
So it is rather to Martin's surprise, that he finds himself having a great time at a rap club. Leaving the club later, Martin is offered a ride home by someone he knows vaguely from school, Peter Mosley, and the driver, Graham Fisher (aka, Apache). Martin doesn't know the car is stolen though, and it isn't a ride home, it's a ride to self-destruction. In the inevitable accident Martin suffers terrible burns to his face. Meanwhile, Peter Mosley is killed, Mark starts limping and Apache vomits onto the floor of the police car.
Martin Turner wakes up in Newham Parkside Hospital with his parents, Clive and Wendy, visible. He's still a bit unconscious but slowly wakes up normally.
Can you imagine waking up in a hospital, and not even knowing for sure whether you have still got all your limbs? As Martin slowly comes to consciousness he checks, one by one. Everything seems to be pretty well OK. His face is the last thing he bothers to think about. Dr Owens tells him that "you can't feel anything. That is because many of the nerve cells have been destroyed." Martin can't really feel the damage because of the painkillers.
Martin has a lot of thinking to do, and in his hospital room he has the time and space to do it. Obviously, he has to come to terms with his new and damaged face. Not only that, all his friends have to come to terms with his new face. There are brown bits and bright red bits. He can't speak fluently because there are swellings on his cheeks. He looks at one of the swellings and thinks that it looks like a mountain.
Also, Martin has to learn to deal with all the different reactions of ordinary people to his terrible injuries. It's all a bit different being on the receiving end of other people's prejudices, about disabilities, or race, or anything else. Benjamin Zephaniah is a black poet and writer himself, so perhaps he has made Martin white so that the message about prejudice can be well learned. Eventually, Martin tells somebody to get him a mirror and when he looks into it, he is horrified by what he sees. There are also fleshy bits where he could see veins and his eyes were as red as blood. Then he sobs himself to sleep.
A few days later, Martin has his first bath since he arrived and is embarrassed to be naked in front of the nurses. By now, his hospital room became his private home. There is fruit on the table beside his bed, gifts everywhere and he starts to speak fluently again.
Martin eventually undergoes a skin graft and is furious when he sees his new face. Five days later, he is able to go home but is stopped by two policemen. They tell they need an account, and Martin tells them. In exchange, DI Byrd tells him Apache will be serving a life sentence for dangerous driving. Throughout the rest of the book, Martin's face recovers and things start to return to normal. But, at this rate, the Gang of Three's relationships could end. The crash remains in the headlines. Martin does increasingly well as the skin graft fades away and his face is back to how it was before the crash. But some children call him "ugly" and he goes home and covers his head with his pillow. Later, he goes to the "Winter Friendlies" and attempts to win them. However, Kirton High win instead and Martin describes them as "crap". At the end of the book, Martin states that "I'm the winner".
Written in very simple language, Zephaniah brings the streets to life.
[edit] Characters
Throughout the various chapters in Face, a number of recurring characters appear. This is a list of most of the characters from Face.
[edit] Major characters
- Martin Turner - main character, leader of the Gang of Three and the classroom joker.
- Marcus Thorpe (Mark) - a copycat who likes to be like Martin and do what Martin does.
- Matthew Penn - more laid-back than the other two, prefers to do things himself.
- Natalie Hepburn - Martin's girlfriend, suggests rap music to Martin.
[edit] Supporting characters
- Clive Turner - Martin's father.
- Wendy Turner - Martin's mother.
- Dr Janet Owens - Martin's doctor who performs the skin graft.
- Nurse Ling - a Chinese woman who is a colleague of Dr Owens and helps Martin with his bath.
- Alan Green - Martin's counselor who gets him the mirror.
- Mr Hewitt - Martin's PE teacher.
- Mrs Powell headmistress
- Mr. Lincoln Martin's form teacher
- Mr. Malcolm science teacher
- Nasreen "Jericho" Rose (Naz) - the tallest of three black girls.
- Marica - likes to play basketball.
- Tina (Teen) - the one who wears an I Love Jamaica T-shirt.
- Detective Inspector Byrd - a policeman who visits Martin for information about the crash.
- Detective Hudson - Byrd's colleague.
[edit] Minor characters
- Jennifer Hamilton - this 16-year-old girl licks Mark on the face.
- Graham Fisher (Apache) - reckless joyrider who eventually ends up crashing, killing Pete Mosley, nearly killing Martin and injuring Mark very badly.
- Peter Mosley - tricks Martin and Mark into the car and dies after Apache crashes it.
- The drug dealer in Dancemania - Matthew calls this man a "bastard" and tells him to "piss off".
- Margaret Knight - gets cross at Martin for no reason.
- Simon Hill - a boy who gets into a fight with Martin.
- The children in the park - they call Martin "ugly", "dog face" and "Bogeyman" even though his face is back to normal.
- The Nulocks boy - Natalie's new boyfriend, starred in a commercial with Natalie.
[edit] Unseen characters
- Patricia "Pat" James - a former girlfriend of Martin.
[edit] Locations in Face
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Throughout the various chapters and quotes in Face, a number of recurring locations also appear. Prominent locations are listed here in rough order of appearance. The order in which some of these locations appear in the book (including returns) depends upon the sequence in which the plot progresses.
- Eastmorelands School
- Green Street
- Dancemania
- Newham Parkside Hospital
- The Sport Centre
[edit] Gangs of Face
Face features a myriad of fictional gangs and criminal organizations of various ethnicities, histories and activities, which have served as both primary and secondly vehicles in the book's plot points, as well as allies or foes of the book's characters.
- The Gang of Three - Martin, Mark and Matthew's own gang.
- Big Six - a group of six of the most respected and feared people in East London.
- The "Big E" Posse - an alliance of East End gangs who once fought each other.
- The Tigers and the Dread Lions - affiliated to the "Big E".
- Stokie Crew - a North London gang who attempted to pick on some girls from the "Big E".
- The Raiders Posse - Apache's gang before the car crash.
- White Knights - Mark forms this gang when he deserts Martin and Matthew.
[edit] Criticism
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
Many readers say that this is the best book by Zephaniah, while others don't. On Amazon.com, it has a total score of 4 stars.
[edit] Adaptations
As of 2006, there are currently no plans of adapting Face at this point.
[edit] References
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
Many of the locations in Face can be seen in Zephaniah's later books, including Gangsta Rap amongst others. There is also a Martin in Refugee Boy, although the connection between the two Martins is currently disputed.
[edit] External links
- Face official homepage
- Face at Fantastic Fiction
- Face at Ciao
- Face at Amazon.com
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