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Search - Small Island
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Small Island Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover
Book Description:
Winner of the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction
Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.
Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.
Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.
Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.
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Top Member Book Reviews
Jennifer B. (
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Excellent novel. If you liked Zadie Smith's White Teeth, you'll love this book.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
novel set mostly in World War II Britain, focusing on 4 characters--two born in England, two born in Jamaica but thinking of Britain as the "Mother Country;" portrays believable clash of cultures with well-rounded characters, flawed but likable; very funny in spots
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Please Rate these Book Reviews
An interesting look at post war London from the eyes of Jamaican immigrants. A really good book.
Good WWII story and the problems of Jamaicans trying to make it in post WWII Britian
It may be because i have just read some great books recently, but I just could not get into this book.
Excellent novel on the immigrant experience. Cleverly written from the perspective of multiple characters.
Winner of the Orange Prize, Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year
This was a great reading experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Amazon.com
Andrea Levy's award-winning novel, Small Island, deftly brings two bleak families into crisp focus. First a Jamaican family, including the well-intentioned Gilbert, who can never manage to say or do exactly the right thing; Romeo Michael, who leaves a wake of women in his path; and finally, Hortense, whose primness belies her huge ambition to become English in every way possible. The other unhappy family is English, starting with Queenie, who escapes the drudgery of being a butcher's daughter only to marry a dull banker. As the chapters reverse chronology and the two groups collide and finally mesh, the book unfolds through time like a photo album, and Levy captures the struggle between class, race, and sex with a humor and tenderness that is both authentic and bracing. The book is cinematic in the best way--lighting up London's bombed-out houses and wartime existence with clarity and verve while never losing her character's voice or story. --Meg Halverson
I really enjoyed the connection between the characters in this book and how they all intertwined without even knowing it.
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