Small Island - Andrea Levy

This is a fiction book which could quite easily be non fiction.
Based mainly in Britain, partly in Jamaica it encompasses the difficulties two couples from both of these Islands could have experienced during the post war period.

There is laughter, love, ignorance, friendship, sadness and hatred entwined to make a very compassionate and a deeply moving novel. It is very realistic and true to life which adds a flavour of poignancy to the story.

Each of the four main character's personalities, thoughts, likes and dislikes shine through with brilliancy in writing that makes one stop to re-read the similes and metaphors that make up their lives, thoughts and actions. 'Her eyes were as black as apple pips'

The novel jumps between the 'before' and 1948 with each chapter headed with a character. Each character talks as if they are telling you their story.

It begins with Hortense arriving in London alone - her husband Gilbert who promised he would meet her was not there. She had given him the money to go to London promising her he would find accommodation for both of them. She arrives at Queenies house with a 'trunk the size of the Isle of Wight' which later Gilbert asks her whether she has her mother inside it.

Hortenses' high ideals of London are shattered as she is shocked at the low standard of the accommodation; all her dreams are dashed by the sight of the room she is to share with her husband.
'Just this? Just this? You bring me all this way for just this?' Groans Hortense.

Gilbert puts his side of the story in the next chapter showing a sensitive man who has high ideals and dreams but realises that life is not a bed of roses. He appears to find it difficult to communicate with his wife.

The book then takes us on to 'before' and through each character we learn how their lives were before 1948.

As the novel unfolds each character and event is plausible it shows the high hopes of Jamaicans and the harsh reality of the prejudice in Britain at that time - and not only by the British people but by the Americans in Britain as well.

This part I found particularly interesting as my own experience as a young girl gave me a deep insight to the prejudice against Jamaicans and the fight they had for their self respect during the 1950's in London. Something I found as a young child awful and something I could never understand or accept.

The characters in the book reminded me of people I had met during those years and I could see the white gloves that Hortense would wear and the baggy suit Gilbert wore.

I could imagine the house in Earls Court as I lived in South London as a child. I could recognise and remember the looks black and white people would get if they talked or walked together. Queenie received these same looks as she walked along the street with Hortense - all very, very real. The utter disgust of the neighbours as Queenie took in her coloured lodgers and befriended them. The flicking of the curtains.

I found the way the characters discussed the cleanliness and habits of each others' cultures quite amusing and this took me back personally to my own childhood experiences. As Bernard could quite easily have said in this novel - Different cultures, you see, they are not like us, you see.

Bernard, Queenies husband reminded me of many men whom I knew as a child.
He showed he made mistakes and also had a heart under his mask of respectability and closed mind.

To me the plot was quite simple but the writing and characters were brilliant.
I did wonder at one point where these characters were leading to and left the book for a few days but I felt compelled to finish it. I am glad I did as the ending was…?

I did laugh out loud in a couple of places where the language was so rich and incidents very comically believable.

I found the writing purely magical and impressive; I can understand why it was a winner of the Orange Prize for fiction as well as the Whitbread book of the year.

Published by Headline ISBN 07553 2565 6
£7.99 - Although I bought mine in Tesco for £3.73.

Teacherofhooch