Couldn't put it down.
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`Small Island' tackles immigration, racism, love and courage using 4 main characters perspectives, each of which have their own fascinating and intriguing back stories, all brought together in a love and war story. Andrea Levy looks at World War ll, and how Britain recruited the help of Caribbean soldiers to help fight the war, however, this affected more than just those who were fighting. Levy tries to find the common relationship that people from the other side of the world can share in the bittersweet heartache that was World War II.
Queenie is found renting out her house to immigrants who are looking for a new start, this is where she meets Gilbert and Hortense, but events change dramatically when her husband Bernard returns after being suspected dead. With a frustrating, yet tantalizing ending, Small Island keep the reader guessing as Queenie and Hortense discover that while they both look for more excitement in their lives and dreams, it does not always come in normal packages. The book has the past and present of each character, including their husbands, and while reading the stories of the 2 men's fight during the war can become slightly tedious and uninspiring, mainly due to the in depth detail Levy goes to. The clash of values that these men portray becomes central in the books message about love and racism in the mid 20th century.
Levy does an amazing job at discussing the sensitive issues of racist abuse and prejudice that some immigrants suffered after the war. Each character has their own background and culture on display, through the brilliant writing by the author, using first person dialogue and obvious detailed research by Levy, enabling each perspective of the war to have its own voice. `Small Island' is an accomplished and stunning novel, and if your looking to be pulled at the heart strings, this book is well worth reading.
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A Classic
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From a novel writing point of view Small Island is a classic. The key element of a novel is characterisation, and Andrea Levy excels herself here. Four `first person' accounts of events occurring in Jamaica, Britain and India, illustrating the random fall-out of war. Ms Levy's `voices' rung authentically and she appeared as capable in rendering idiosyncratic Jamaican as she was with RAF 'squaddie'. She also dealt convincingly with basic realities - the reality of war (the randomness of death and destruction) and the reality of attitudes (racist bigotry) in a most uncompromising way. This made for uncomfortable reading, to the extent that there were times when I was longing for someone to show a mere flicker of a hint of the milk of human kindness (someone, perhaps, with an English accent). In this way she showed admirable discipline as a writer, with only an occasional nod towards a more common understanding of the plight of others (Jamaicans and bombed out 'cockneys' alike), and, when she could have ameliorated the response of an out-and-out bigot, she created a humorous post-script (suggesting 'once a bigot, always a bigot').
I loved the line (from Jamaican, Gilbert) 'I knew ... had put on a bit of weight but what an astonishment to find it was the type you could dress in a bonnet'. Yes, the humour was there, which was just about the only amelioration Ms Levy allowed in the whole of the novel. OK, there were tiny little achievements, rescued from larger defeats, that perhaps prevented the main characters from high-tailing it back to Jamaica (of course, had they done so, there would have been no Small Island). She also creates a most wonderfully ironic ending - not a 'happy ever after' ending, either, but one that fits the overall feel of the book admirably. Well worthy of the Orange prize and five stars from this reader.
I have read one of the more critical reviews (of which there are very, very few here)to the effect that Ms Levy over-loaded her 'Indian' account with too much research (I certainly wasn't aware of it), and also that there were certain inaccuracies in her descriptions. I can't speak authoritatively about India during the war, but I do know there was an RAF 'mutiny' along the lines she described. [It would be useful that, if a reader does find errors, he/she actually says what they are.]
In summary, a brilliantly written book that paints a less roseate picture of London during and immediately after WW2 than we have become accustomed to being presented with. Brilliantly characterised with authentic voices and written in the first person (which, I believe, is the most vital of all view-points).
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Brilliant story teller
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Levy takes us back to the Caribbean and Europe of the 30s and 40s in a wholly believable way, through the calmer pre-war years, the horrors and privations of the war, the deflation and dashed hopes that descended after the war, as returning soldiers began to wonder what it had all been for.
It's a book that deals with Britain's casually racist past born of the imagined superiority of colonialism, and ponders whether it was really so much better than the Americans' established and open apartheid. But most of all, this is a book about people. It's about making the best of things and getting through. It's a book about dignity, loyalty and hope.
Interweaving first person narratives, switching back and forth across time, place and perspective with great skill, Levy creates wholly believable characters, and despite their obvious flaws lets us see the world through their eyes. Levy's greatest skill is as a story teller, everything about her writing serving the story, rather than for literary effect or to draw attention to itself.
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A good read
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This is the first book I have read by this author after someone left it in our staff room. Although I have always steered clear of any books to do with the war, I was intrigued by the subject matter. I had never really considered the prejudice that lives within our country every day. I found the characters (although slightly stereotypical) quite interesting and I enjoyed the way the book jumped between years. I liked the understanding that the book gave you of what all the characters were doing at the same time. Although this book carries a serious message, it was also quite amusing. I will read more books by the author now.
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Lots of voices, one wonderful tale
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Despite its slowish start this clever and intricate novel builds and builds as it goes along. It draws you in and becomes quite a page-turner, but in a very unusual way. There's no dramatic plot, no adventurous escapades or titillation, but what keeps you turning the pages, hour after hour, is a genuine interest in what's going to happen to the characters next.
Written from the points of view of four of the protagonists, the story has been described as feeling like a `switchback ride' and this seems a good description to me. You come hurtling towards an event from the point of view of one person and then suddenly, you're inhabiting another body and seeing the same event from a totally different perspective. What makes this so fulfilling is the way that you get to see people as fully-rounded figures - not caricatures. Gilbert is lazy and weak when Hortense is speaking, but honourable and brave when telling his own story. Queenie looks elegant and altruistic through her own eyes, but rather grubby and vulgar when others view her. In fact, if there's a flaw in the telling of this story it is only that, of all the characters, Queenie changes the most from one point of view to another and is hard to `pin down' in the imagination.
For me, the whole tale really springs into life when, unexpectedly, a fourth voice joins Queenie, Hortense and Gilbert about two thirds of the way through and, skipping like a pebble on a lake, the story skims from Jamaica to London to wartime India - effortlessly and without jarring or becoming fragmented and annoying.
Above all, an intriguing look at a little-spoken-of period of British history and an engaging and well-told tale. I'll be looking out for more from this writer, who reminds of me of Kate Atkinson at her finely-woven best - Human Croquet for example, or Behind the Scenes.
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