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Stori sy'n cydio, wedi ei leoli yn y ddinas.
Gripping story set in the city.
Gwasg/publisher: Y Lolfa
Cyhoeddwyd/released: 2019
Pris: £5.99
ISBN: 978-1-78461-745-5
*Llyfr gwreiddiol - Welsh Original*
Lefel her/challenge level: ❖ ❖ ❖
Dwi’n mwynhau darllen, ond ddim yn aml dwi’n mwynhau nofel cymaint â hon. Mae’n swnio dipyn bach yn cliché, ond roedd hi wir y amhosib rhoi hon i lawr. Tydi hi ddim fel unrhyw beth dwi wedi’i ddarllen yn y Gymraeg o’r blaen. Mae lleoliad dinesig y nofel, mewn stad o fflatiau, yn fy atgoffa o’r ddrama deledu This is England - ond wrth gwrs, mae hwn yn sbesial i Gymru ac yn llawer gwell!
Tydi’r wybodaeth ar wefan y Lolfa ddim yn gwneud cyfiawnder â’r nofel yma: “Mae Tom yn 15 oed ac mae ei fywyd yn gymhleth.” Wel, dyna i chi understatement! Llawer gwell gen i ddisgrifiad Manon Steffan Ros ohoni fel nofel sy’n “gyffrous, mentrus a chwbl unigryw.” Mae hi’n unigryw.
Bachgen 15 oed yw Tom, sy’n dioddef y pethau teenage angst fyse chi’n disgwyl mewn nofel fel hyn, ond mae ambell i dwist diddorol. Er enghraifft, mae o’n obsessed efo bod yn lân a pheidio dal germau. Rhywbeth diddorol sy’n cael ei esbonio wedyn.
Mae Tom yn byw ar stad Caercoed yn Grangetown. Dwi wedi gwirioni efo disgrifiadau Cynan Llwyd o’r ardal - mae o’n ein trochi ym myd dydd-i-ddydd y stad. Mae’n cyfleu tlodi a chaledi bywyd yno. Er hyn, mae ’na lawer o gariad yn nhŷ Tom, ond mae ei fam, sy’n fam sengl, yn gweithio ddydd a nos er mwyn crafu byw i roi bîns a chicken nuggets ar y bwrdd. Mae pres yn dynn a fedrwch chi ddim helpu ond cydymdeimlo â nhw.
Mae’r disgrifiadau yn gignoeth, ac yn blaen - nid ydynt yn ceisio cuddio’r agweddau annymunol. Pan ffeindia Tom gath wedi marw er enghraifft, dyweda: “dwi’n credu ’mod i wedi delio gyda hynny’n dda er gwaetha’r gwaed, y perfedd, y drewdod a hagrwch moelni’r ci.”
Trafoda’r nofel nifer o themâu cyfoes. Mae yna dlodi, oes, a gangs, trais, cyffuriau, hiliaeth a llofrudd, ond yng nghanol hyn oll, mae yna gyfeillgarwch a theimlad o gymdogaeth hefyd. Mae Tom yn ffrindiau mawr efo Dai, sef dyn yn ei wythdegau, ac maen nhw’n rhannu mwynhad o gomics. Ffrind gorau Tom yw Ananya, ac maen nhw’n fêts gorau. Mae ei theulu, Y Khans, yn wreiddiol o Fangladesh, ac yn dioddef peth atgasedd hiliol yn y stori. Serch hynny, llwydda’r nofel i ddangos Cymru fodern sy’n amlddiwylliannol a sut mae gwahanol hiliau a chrefyddau’n cyd-fyw gyda’i gilydd, er bod 'na anghydraddoldebau cymdeithasol yn dal i fod.
I fynd yn ôl at ddisgrifiad gor-syml Y Lolfa o’r nofel, yndi, mae bywyd Tom yn gymhleth. Mae’n ffeindio’i hun yn cael ei dynnu’n ddyfnach i mewn i fyd tywyll y gangs ac mae’r pethau mae’n ei weld - ac yn ei wneud - yn peri gofid mawr iddo. Yn wir, mae ei fywyd mewn perygl. Wna i ddim rhoi mwy o spoliers!
Ella fod 'na fymryn gormod o ddisgrifio ar brydiau, ac yn bersonol mi faswn i wedi hoffi diweddglo gwahanol. Roedd y tensiwn a’r drama wedi cael eu hadeiladu i’r fath raddau, roeddwn i’n siŵr fod rhywbeth ofnadwy’n mynd i ddigwydd, ond siomedig braidd oedd y diweddglo sydyn, taclus. Roeddwn i’n awyddus i’r nofel fod yn dywyllach yn y diwedd.
Roedd iaith ddeheuol y llyfr yn hawdd i’w ddeall (hyd yn oed i Gog fel fi) a dwi’n hapus iawn i weld nifer o eiriau Saesneg (wedi eu hitaleiddio) yn hytrach na thrio defnyddio geiriau Cymraeg stiff ac annaturiol. O ganlyniad, roedd popeth yn llifo’n dda. Roeddwn i’n hoffi’r darnau ‘social media chatroom’ yn ogystal â defnyddio pwyntiau bwled i grynhoi ambell ddisgrifiad. Pam lai? Mae’n lleihau’r baich darllen ond yn cyfleu’r wybodaeth i gyd yn syml ac yn sydyn.
Dwi’n gobeithio y bydd yna lyfr arall gan yr awdur yma, ac mi faswn i’n synnu os na fydd hwn yn ymddangos ar y maes llafur TGAU yn fuan. Mae’n hen bryd i ni gael nofel gyfoes, rymus wedi ei lleoli mewn dinas ar y cwricwlwm sy’n fwy perthnasol erbyn hyn i bobl ifanc na Y Stafell Ddirgel. (No offens i Marion Eames!)
I enjoy reading but I’m not often gripped by a novel as I was with this one. Sounds a little bit cliché perhaps but it really was impossible to put down. It's not like anything I've read in Welsh before. The novels urban location, based on a block of flats within an estate reminds me of the TV drama This is England – but of course this is special to us in Wales and much better!
The information on The Lolfa’s website does not do this novel justice: "Tom is 15 years old and his life is complicated." Well, that’s an understatement! I much prefer Manon Steffan Ros’s description. She calls it "exciting, risky and totally unique." It is unique.
Tom, our 15-year-old main character suffers from the usual teenage angst you’d expect in a novel for this age group, but it does have a few interesting twists. For one, he is obsessed with cleanliness and despises germs. This is something that is addressed later in the book.
Tom lives on the Caercoed estate in Grangetown. I'm thrilled with Cynan Llwyd's descriptions of the area – he immerses us in day-to-day life on the estate. It portrays the deprivation and poverty as well as the general struggle of life there. Despite the bleakness, there’s a lot of love in Tom's house, and the two have a strong bond. His mother, who is a single parent, works day and night to scrape a living and to put chicken nuggets on the table. Money is tight and you can’t help but feel sorry for them.
The descriptions are blunt and raw. They do not attempt to conceal the undesirable aspects. For example, when he finds a dead cat, he describes: "I think I have dealt with it well despite the blood, the guts, the stench and the deformity.”
The novel discussed a number of topical themes. There is poverty, yes, and gangs, violence, murder, drugs and racism, but in the midst of all this, there is also friendship and comradery amongst neighbours. Tom is big friends with Dai, a man in his eighties, and they share a love of comics. Tom's best friend is Ananya, and they are close. Her family, the Khans, are originally from Bangladesh, and they suffer some racial abuse in the story. But more than this, the novel portrays a modern and multicultural Wales where different races and religions co-exist together despite many social inequalities.
Going back to that overly simplistic description of the novel, I agree, his life is complex. He finds himself being dragged deeper into the world of the gangs and he sees and does things that are very distressing. Indeed, it puts his very life in danger. No more spoilers, I promise!
Maybe there are too many descriptions at times, and personally I would have liked a different ending. The tension, and the drama had been built to such an extent, I was sure that something terrible was going to happen, but the swift, tidy ending was somewhat disappointing. I wanted the novel to be darker towards the end.
The South-Walian dialect of the book was easy enough to understand (even for a Gog such as myself) and I was very happy to see a number of English words (italicised) rather than using a number of stiff, artificial-sounding Welsh words. As a result, the story flows naturally. I liked the ' social media chatroom ' sections and the use of bullet points to summarise some descriptions. Why not? - It reduces the reading burden but conveys all the information simply and quickly.
I hope another book is on it’s way from the author, and I would be surprised if this does not appear on the GCSE syllabus soon. It’s about time for us to have a modern, powerful, city-based novel on the curriculum that is more relevant to the youth of today than Y Stafell Ddirgel. (No offence to Marion Eames of course!)