|
Journal Entry 1 by  crimson-tide from Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Saturday, February 06, 2010
 Duplicate copy.
From Publishers Weekly:
"Small Island is the amazing story on the first wave of Jamaican immigrants who arrived in Britain after WWII. Set mainly in the British Empire of 1948, this story of emigration, loss and love follows four characters — two Jamaicans and two Britons — as they struggle to find peace in postwar England.
After serving in the RAF, Jamaican Gilbert Joseph finds life in his native country has become too small for him. But in order to return to England, he must marry Hortense Roberts and then set up house for them in London. The pair move in with Queenie Bligh, whose husband, Bernard, hasn't returned from his wartime post in India. But when does Bernard turn up, he is not pleased to find black immigrants living in his house.
This deceptively simple plot poises the characters over a yawning abyss of colonialism, racism, war and the everyday pain that people inflict on one another. Levy allows readers to see events from each of the four character's' point of view, lightly demonstrating both the subjectivity of truth and the rationalizing lies that people tell themselves when they are doing wrong."
Winner of the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
|
|
Journal Entry 3 by crimson-tide at Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Monday, February 15, 2010
Released 1 yr ago (2/14/2010 UTC) at Balingup, Western Australia Australia CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Posted to livrecache as a choice from Round 18 of the OZ VBB.
|
|
Journal Entry 4 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Thursday, February 25, 2010
Received in the mail few days while we were away. I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks, crimson-tide.
|
|
Journal Entry 5 by livrecache at Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Monday, December 20, 2010
I was totally engrossedby this book, although I didn't 'like' any of the protagonists. All four characters take turns telling their stories, the narrative momentum of ''Small Island'' is slight; the present action occurs over a few days in 1948, but a great deal of the novel takes place in a time zone Levy simply labels ''Before''. As if to make up for this lack of incident, toward the end of the novel Levy has Queenie spring a surprise on the other characters – one that catches the reader off guard as well [I anticipated it].
''Small island'' is how the inhabitants of Jamaica, the largest island in the West Indies, refer to the rest of the Caribbean. But when Gilbert returns to Jamaica after the war, he understands for the first time that he too is a small islander – a realisation that links him (although he doesn't know it) to Bernard, who has also been changed by his wartime experiences.
Horrified to find ''wogs'' as lodgers in his own home, Bernard is also disappointed by home itself. ''England had shrunk,'' he tells us. ''It was smaller than the place I'd left.'' A preachier novel would find some way of making both men realise what they have in common (and so mitigate Bernard's racism), but ''Small Island'' is too subtle – and too true to life – for that.
Instead, Gilbert's experiences as a West Indian in the RAF. are contrasted with the lot of black GI's in the United States forces: American bases are strictly segregated, black and white GI's are given passes for leave on different days. At first glance, to be a subject of the British Empire is to have ''superior black skin.''
Levy's greatest achievement in ''Small Island'' is to convey how English racism was all the more heartbreaking for its colonial victims because it involved the crushing of their ideals. Gilbert is astonished to discover that although he can reel off the names of England's canals and list the major industries of each English town, most English people can't even find Jamaica on a map. ''How come England did not know me?'' he asks. Hortense's training as a teacher counts for nothing in England, and while she may have won a prize for reciting Keats's ''Ode to a Nightingale'' at school, she can't make herself understood by a London taxi driver.
Levy understands the complex relationship between color and class. Light-skinned Hortense has been brought up as a lady, and she initially despises Gilbert for his coarser manners. She also looks down on Queenie for being less educated than she is. The slow development of Hortense's respect for her husband as she begins to understand the challenges he faces (many of which she will confront herself) is one of the most moving aspects of the book. ''Small Island'' is too thoughtful a novel to promise its characters a happy ending, but it is generous enough to offer them hope.
|
Small Island
