It isn't an exaggeration to state that Andrea Levy's Small
Island was 2004's book of the year. Not only did it scoop the Whitbread Novel of the Year award, it also garnered Levy the Orange
Prize for fiction and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize.
Despite its literary kudos, Small Island is far
from being a novel accessible only to those who prefer hard-line literary reads.
Written in a series of first-person narratives, Levy's writing style is
immediately engaging, occasionally darkly witty and weaves together several
cleverly constructed and page-turning story lines.
Set in Britain and its commonwealth countries of the 1940s, Levy utilises four
non-stereotypical characters to highlight (often ironically) the
experiences of Jamaicans arriving in London just
after World War Two. Through the eyes of Jamaican protagonists Gilbert
and his uptight wife Hortense, the personal perspectives of island upbringing
are starkly contrasted by their perceptions of pre and post war-torn London.
While Gilbert endures racism from American GIs during his stint as an
airman in the RAF, Hortense plans her escape from the West Indies, buys herself
passage to England and endeavours to remain secure in the illusion of her own
superiority to almost everyone she encounters.
Through Queenie, Gilbert's landlady, the reader
experiences a forthright and almost voyeuristic account of living through the
blitz, as well as sharing her escape from a life of farm labour by enduring a
marriage of convenience. The horror she sees as the bombs rain down around London
is only tampered by her peculiar relationship with her father-in-law,
the mysterious disappearance of her husband, and her night of passion with
an airman that explains her "liberal" predilections towards her West
Indian lodgers. Her repressed husband Bernard's narrative, not only adds
another twist to the subjective reality evoked by the other characters' point of
view, it pulls in other nation's experience of colonialism - most notably that
of India.
Levy writes both genders with equal brilliance and
luminosity, and while the issues of racism, displacement, war and sex
are prevalent in the narrative, there?s nothing overtly "preachy" about
this deservedly much-lauded novel.
It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was.
General
| Imprint: |
Tinder Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
| Release date: |
March 2005 |
| First published: |
2004 |
| Authors: |
Andrea Levy
|
| Dimensions: |
197 x 130 x 32mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback - B-format
|
| Pages: |
533 |
| Edition: |
New ed |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-7553-0750-0 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
Promotions
|
| LSN: |
0-7553-0750-X |
| Barcode: |
9780755307500 |
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