Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze

Published 2020 · 320 pages · 80,000 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Mystery & Crime

How hard is Who They Was to read?

Who They Was scores 56 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 62 out of 100
London street vocabulary.
Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
Voice-driven prose.
Abstraction: 60 out of 100
Class, crime, education.
Information density: 58 out of 100
London estates.
Narrative indirection: 55 out of 100
First person.
Symbolic density: 55 out of 100
Identity, education.
Ironic distance: 55 out of 100
Voice irony.
Resolution withholding: 55 out of 100
Education continues.
Structural complexity: 52 out of 100
Linear narrative.

How Who They Was is regarded

Who They Was holds a literary regard score of 52 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Gabriel Krauze