Jas because

Gautam Malkani's debut novel begins with a scene of visceral violence: four young British Asians are pummelling a white kid for calling them "Pakis"""a word that, like "nigga", you're allowed to use only if you're on the inside ("Can't be callin someone a Paki less you also call'd a Paki, innit"). The actual beating is being done by Hardjit, the brawny gangleader, but the others""Amit, Ravi and our narrator Jas (presumably short for a longer Punjabi name)""are participants in what is really an elaborate bit of role-playing. As it turns out, the white boy had never actually abused Hardjit and his gang, but that isn't the point. The point is that our Asian "rudeboys" need a pretext to assert their identity and their machismo.

We follow Hardjit and the others as they cruise the streets of Hounslow, boast about their sexual prowess in such exaggerated terms that it seems almost deliberately farcical, deride "coconuts" (Asian kids who are brown on the surface but white inside, having integrated so completely with the British that no trace of their ethnicity remains) and make illegal money by unblocking stolen mobile phones for a client. They talk in a street lingo that mixes elements of gangsta rap with SMS shorthand""but just as vitally incorporates words like "khota", "gandah" and "thapparh", which they could only have learnt at home, from their first-generation NRI parents. (Watching these gangstas turn into well-mannered Punjabi boys within the confines of their homes is amusing, but it also helps us understand the need for escapism that manifests itself in their streetwise identities.)

Through all this, Jas is relatively subdued; he prefers to keep his mouth shut, for when he opens it he usually produces something awkward and overwrought like "Yeh bredren, knock his f#$%ing teeth out. Bruck his f#$%ing face... you know..." By the book's end, we'll have a better perspective on why he feels like a misfit, but for now, it's enough to know that he is a converted coconut himself""formerly a "desified, poncey khota", now an aspiring member of Hardjit's rudeboy gang.

Though Londonstani is largely a novel of vignettes, there are a few key plot-movers. The boys get involved with a sophisticated poncey named Sanjay who lectures them about "bling bling economics" and encourages them to take their illegal phone racket into the big league. Meanwhile, there is tension in Amit's family over his brother's engagement to a girl whose parents are not "showing enough respect" to the boy's side. And Jas ill-advisedly acts on his infatuation with a Muslim girl.

If you've read anything about this book, you'll know that one of the big talking points is the surprise ending. As a considerate reviewer, I'll resist the temptation to disclose it, even though this makes it difficult to meaningfully discuss one of the most interesting things Malkani is trying to do here. As a concept, the twist has potential, but its treatment is problematic. One can see glimpses of what the author has in mind""he's commenting on the subtle workings of reverse-colonialisation and forcing us to rethink some of the things we've taken for granted. But by planting the surprise in the very last pages and by giving it the bated-breath treatment, he isolates it from the rest of the book. It becomes an end in itself, leaving us with just the fragment of an idea that is never seen all the way through.

But even if Londonstani doesn't fulfil its author's ambitions for it, I was content to enjoy it at a more superficial level: for the smartness of its writing, for a first-time novelist's playfulness (example: the juxtaposing of two visits on consecutive nights by Jas to the same nightclub), for the observations about a constantly evolving subculture in modern Britain""and for the fun Malkani has with his protagonists' lingo. At its best, this book has a startling linguistic quality comparable (not in complexity or inventiveness but in effect) to the teen argot in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange""where, after initial bemusement, the reader realises that with a little effort it's possible to decipher what these lads are saying, and then slowly gets around to appreciating the rhythms and cadences of the language.

If you can get past that barrier, you're almost certain to have a lot of fun reading this book. Jas try not to read too much about it beforehand.

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LONDONSTANI Gautam Malkani
Fourth Estate
Price: £11.99;
Pages: 343