The Muffin Man by André Rostant: Book Review
In London, we’re all always trying to get somewhere. We’re famous for it. Famously rude, famously self-absorbed, famously on our own private missions. Perhaps I should say infamously. We habitually navigate the streets in a hurry, even though it doesn’t matter if our hand is holding that warm coffee in two minutes or five. Like many, I’ve rushed past Big Issue vendors, often with as a little as a brief thought about how difficult it must be to stand out in the cold being ignored, and then onwards.
This was true until I read The Muffin Man by André Rostant. It is a bracing debut about the life of Big Issue vendor and all the lives that touch him, from his fellow vendors to a woman who gives him a pound for not being eastern European. André Rostant has worked as a Big Issue vendor for years and that has given the novel its unflinching realism.
The London that Rostant paints is one that many of us are familiar with – we pass Old Crompton Street, Bond Street, Oxford Street and many a Pret. It is a London that the UK is proud of. That calls tourists, shoppers and cameras to it. Yet, at the same time, the people that feature in Rostant’s London are ones that many of us have merely seen, possibly spoken briefly to, but not truly considered. The book asks us to consider this side of London, its underbelly, its beauty, its bruises.
Today, the idea that you need to “check your privilege” has become a bit of a buzz phrase. While there is a fair amount of battering over what that truly means, in short, it’s about acknowledging the lottery of birth. Characteristics such as your skin colour, sex, health, financial status, familial support have all impacted the life that you lead today, and the ease at which you were able to access that life. While it is important to acknowledge your hard work for your job title or your consistency at the gym for your trim physique, so much is down to luck. The Muffin Man really highlights that we are all just a few missed turns, like a bad breakup or a lost job, away from a spiral that could lead to us holding the Big Issue in our own hands. Suddenly, the idea of checking your privilege, or appreciating the huge role that luck plays in our lives, feels less like a buzz phrase and more like a hard, inescapable reality.
The Muffin Man’s grit is perfectly balanced by humour. Plus, the narrator is so interesting and fun that it is a delight to spend time with him. The book shines the most with its studies of different characters, who are drawn frankly and sympathetically. There’s Martin, ‘the Irish spot-beggar’, a ‘mild, ghostly man, with a gentle Kerry accent and a lisp,’ and a ‘uncertain serenity’. There’s also Scottish Todd a ‘crotchety fellow with a frightful temper’. The book has a stream of consciousness feel, dipping into memories, literary influences, as well as recounts of the day-to-day. At times, although the writing is impressively intricate, it can be a little more challenging to follow along (it possibly isn’t a before bed read), but the characters, the brilliant depiction of Soho and wit make it a wonderful read.
To buy The Muffin Man head to your local bookstore or purchase from the publishers here.
Under One Sky is a volunteer-led not-for-profit UK charity dedicated to ending homelessness. They have supported André and people like him.
