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Loyalty, faith and familial ties in 1980s St Paul’s
Moses McKenzie burst on the literary scene in 2022 with his critically-acclaimed debut novel An Olive Groves in Ends.
Now the Bristol author returns with his second novel, a powerful story of loyalty, faith and rebellion set in St Paul’s against the backdrop of the 1980s riots.
Fast by the Horns explores the life of 14-year-old Jabari, and his relationship with his father, the revered community leader Ras Levi.
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Raised in a world of sus laws and council neglect, Jabari finds hope in his Rastafari faith, but when a local firebrand activist is arrested, and violence soon overflows, both father and son are pulled into its maelstrom.
It’s new territory for Moses, who became interested in Rastafari culture in 2021, along with a number of other authors exploring the faith within the Black British context.
“I think we might have all turned to explore Rastafari because of what was going on in the world in 2020/2021 – ideas of Rastafari as anarchy, rebellion, protest,” he tells Bristol24/7 a week before his new novel hits the shelves of bookstores around the country.
“But then I also wanted to look at the flaws within Rasatfari as well, like their ideas on gender and womanhood and that contradiction there,” he adds.
Fast by the Horns uses the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac – in which God tells Abraham to take Isaac into the mountains and sacrifice him – as a way to explore the relationship between a father and son and the father’s responsibilities to the community and his immediate family.
Moses’ character of Jarabi is a deviation from the introspective character of Sayon in An Olive Grove in Ends.
“In Fast By The Horns, I’m writing a character who lacks all self-awareness and introspection, whereas in An Olive Grove in Ends, the character was very introspective so I was able to break things down clearer,” says Moses.
“In Fast by the Horns, I was following the limitations I had imposed on the character. Because he’s not introspective, I have to let the audience know things about this character without him telling them and without him showing, because he’ll say one thing and do another.”
Moses had the idea to write Fast by the Horns around the same time as An Olive Grove in Ends, which was also set in Bristol, in Easton.
“When I was thinking about how I was going to write about St Paul’s, the riots are obviously quite a profound moment in St Paul’s history, and had a lasting impact on the present,” he reflects.
When Moses turned to the writing stage, he was inspired by 1930s Black American author, Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God – considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance – in two weeks.
“In 2022, I wanted to beat that,” he says. “I wrote 50,000 words in a week. I left it for a bit, then went back to it and changed it completely, although I had the foundations.”
Most of Moses’ prose comes from his own experience as a young person living in these areas, and what he heard from others. “So the research for the first two books has most prominently been my life,” he says.
Originally practising prose through bars at school, Moses decided to write a book in 2017. “It was really bad. But I enjoyed it so I just carried on,” he laughs.
He’s now working on his third novel, chiefly set in the Caribbean during pre-Columbus times.
“It’s going to be the best novel ever,” he says with the earnestness of someone that has worked hard to become the award-winning novelist Moses McKenzie is today.
Main photo: Wildfire
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