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Review
'Painfully perceptive and passionate, NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE hits a raw nerve with its powerful concoction of poignancy and humour'
(Pride )'Passionate and angry'
(TLS )'In this lively, crisp, raw voice, young black Londoners may have found their Roddy Doyle'
(Independent on Sunday )'Levy's raw sense of realism and depth of feeling infuses every line'
(Elle )'An inspired coming-of-age novel with a mature grasp of generational conflict, pressure to conform, and the fraught process of discovering one's identity, NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE should be read by anyone who is growing up in Britain today'
(Scotsman )'The story is well told, does not dodge complexity and rings true'
(The Times )Product Description
A passionate and perceptive story full of the pain and the humour of growing up, from Andrea Levy, author of the Orange Prize winning SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG.
NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE is the story of two sisters, Olive and Vivien, born in London to Jamaican parents and brought up on a council estate. They go to the same grammar school, but while Vivien's life becomes a chaotic mix of friendships, youth clubs, skinhead violence, A-levels, discos and college, Olive, three years older and a skin shade darker, has a very different tale to tell...
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Customer Reviews
They are very different personalities, Vivien: shy and thoughtful; Olive; brash and frequently selfish; and the reader is often sucked into the appealing notion that each is completely responsible for their own accomplishments and downfalls. However, this is the ironic illusion that Andrea Levy wishes to draw the reader in to. The stark truth of the story is that external forces, namely their own parent's - and particularly their mother's - predjudice, has been the most powerful carving force on their lives... for Olive is a shade or two darker than her sister, and their mother believes that due to her own mixed parentage, that she isn't really black.
I really loved this book, it gives you a real sense of the displacement that many first and second generation Carribean's must truly feel; the lack of a sense of home when the British winter bites and you know the sun is beating down on the fields of Jamaica!
If 'Never far from nowhere' falls down in any respect, it's in its failure to address the relationships between the two sisters and other black people outside the family. All their freinds, boyfreinds, work colleagues are white, and for life on a Finsbury Park council estate, this rang a little untrue. Nevertheless, aside from this 'glitch' it is a great book and a great piece of social commentary on modern Britain.
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