 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Not Quite White for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'An uplifting and utopian vision of Wales and its language.' --Helen Dunmore
'A tragic-comic battle between two cultures.' --Gillian Clarke
'An important book for readers of all backgrounds.' --Angharad Price
'A tragic-comic battle between two cultures.' --Gillian Clarke
'An important book for readers of all backgrounds.' --Angharad Price
Product Description
The young Jon Bull is sent by Westminster to Wales's last remaining Welsh-speaking town to see why all attempts to bring it into the twenty-first century have failed. Waiting for him is the beautiful but embittered Gwalia...Not Quite White explores the complex tensions that spit and seethe when English colonialism and Welsh nationalism go head to head. It is a passionate defence of cultural and political identity, and a considered plea for tolerance. It is also a sustained attack on the forces of small-town bigotry and corruption. But, above all, it is an acknowledgement of the subtleties and ambiguities that exist in even the most entrenched attitudes.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a deeply intelligent look at prejudices, the disjunct of reasoning behind their formation and their endurance. This book never turns preachy, but conveys the message with humour and tact and some romance.
In response to the comments by Amazing - I'd like to say that I am a woman and I certainly didn't feel any comments (or the book as a whole) to be sexist in any way. It seems to me to read some sections as `blame the victim' is a very superficial and pedantic reading of the text. A victim's feelings of guilt/culpability is well documented in psychiatry and is one of the early stages in the rape victim's psychological trajectory from trauma to healing, a stage that very much has to be acknowledged, not glossed over. In fact I think this book captures Gwalia's journey into healing with great sensitivity (and not without parallel lessons to be leant on a cultural level). One of the most poignant scenes is where she spills milk on the floor and her father finds her.
It also seemed rather unfair to accuse the author of using one particular character to ventriloquize. What you see depends on where you choose to stand ... perhaps it is these same kind of polarized or superficial views the book attempts to expose? A humorous treatment invariably requires some kind of exaggeration. True there may not be a welsh village without electricity or plumbing-literally, but that is kind of beside the real point isn't it?
On Amazing's dismissal of some sections as mere `old colonial tricks` - I quite disagree as I didn't find any reason to to feel that any of these inter-racial dialogues were inauthentic.
I see a universal lesson here; often `we are trapped in a story'. What you ultimately come away with after reading this book is a sense of the importance of not remaining victims, of not living by rote. Why we must re-evaluate attitudes and find new ways of integration without losing our identity - that it is possible only if we are willing to take an honest and open look at our own prejudices.
In response to the comments by Amazing - I'd like to say that I am a woman and I certainly didn't feel any comments (or the book as a whole) to be sexist in any way. It seems to me to read some sections as `blame the victim' is a very superficial and pedantic reading of the text. A victim's feelings of guilt/culpability is well documented in psychiatry and is one of the early stages in the rape victim's psychological trajectory from trauma to healing, a stage that very much has to be acknowledged, not glossed over. In fact I think this book captures Gwalia's journey into healing with great sensitivity (and not without parallel lessons to be leant on a cultural level). One of the most poignant scenes is where she spills milk on the floor and her father finds her.
It also seemed rather unfair to accuse the author of using one particular character to ventriloquize. What you see depends on where you choose to stand ... perhaps it is these same kind of polarized or superficial views the book attempts to expose? A humorous treatment invariably requires some kind of exaggeration. True there may not be a welsh village without electricity or plumbing-literally, but that is kind of beside the real point isn't it?
On Amazing's dismissal of some sections as mere `old colonial tricks` - I quite disagree as I didn't find any reason to to feel that any of these inter-racial dialogues were inauthentic.
I see a universal lesson here; often `we are trapped in a story'. What you ultimately come away with after reading this book is a sense of the importance of not remaining victims, of not living by rote. Why we must re-evaluate attitudes and find new ways of integration without losing our identity - that it is possible only if we are willing to take an honest and open look at our own prejudices.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not Quite White is the modern, complicated love story of Jon, the think tank boy from London; and Gwalia, the beautiful but burdened girl from Wales. The reader is taken on the rough and remote road to Llanchwaraetegdanygelyn, the last fully Welsh speaking town in Wales, tucked away and forgotten. Until now that is.
Jon has been sent to convince the town to catch up with the rest of the country and finally allow electricity and running water to be installed - only to come up against barriers he hadn't envisaged in his meticulous strategic planning far away in his Westminster office. These barriers expose the importance of cultural identity and language and how very intertwined the two are.
The reason why everyone, not just those from Wales, may well be able to relate to this book is because it looks at uncomfortable prejudices we perhaps didn't even know we had. How many of us have quipped about Welsh being a dying language? Or about Welsh culture in general? How far is too far and what constitutes as racism? Having grown up in north Wales myself, I have been at the receiving end of many such comments - and however well intended they may be, it's often difficult to completely discard these fine strands of arrogance and ignorance as completely innocent. The line between an awareness of this and being the victim is also a fine one,which is something else the book looks at. In the grand scheme of things perhaps all or none of us are victims of some kind of prejudice.
That said, this book is far from a guilt-inducing, gloomy look at our own consciences; but more like a satire with the joke being played back and forth between us, the author and the characters. For example, English families move to Llanchwaraetegdanygelyn after rejecting increasingly multicultural suburban areas in search of their idea of a something purer - only to find that they are then very much the immigrants and come up against racism themselves.
Thirsk has layered his debut novel with politics, history and poetry which means that we learn a great deal about this not quite foreign but not quite familiar land within Great Britain.
Jon has been sent to convince the town to catch up with the rest of the country and finally allow electricity and running water to be installed - only to come up against barriers he hadn't envisaged in his meticulous strategic planning far away in his Westminster office. These barriers expose the importance of cultural identity and language and how very intertwined the two are.
The reason why everyone, not just those from Wales, may well be able to relate to this book is because it looks at uncomfortable prejudices we perhaps didn't even know we had. How many of us have quipped about Welsh being a dying language? Or about Welsh culture in general? How far is too far and what constitutes as racism? Having grown up in north Wales myself, I have been at the receiving end of many such comments - and however well intended they may be, it's often difficult to completely discard these fine strands of arrogance and ignorance as completely innocent. The line between an awareness of this and being the victim is also a fine one,which is something else the book looks at. In the grand scheme of things perhaps all or none of us are victims of some kind of prejudice.
That said, this book is far from a guilt-inducing, gloomy look at our own consciences; but more like a satire with the joke being played back and forth between us, the author and the characters. For example, English families move to Llanchwaraetegdanygelyn after rejecting increasingly multicultural suburban areas in search of their idea of a something purer - only to find that they are then very much the immigrants and come up against racism themselves.
Thirsk has layered his debut novel with politics, history and poetry which means that we learn a great deal about this not quite foreign but not quite familiar land within Great Britain.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
reading Not Quite White for the first time I was immersed in several different worlds: A small fictional Welsh town in the back & beyond, the rifts and conflicts between the incomers and the "natives", parochial and narrow-minded thinking and concepts on all sides, the discussion about progress and what we mean by it, information on old and recent Welsh history - and a lovely love-story which kept me turning the pages...
As an incomer myself - though never felt like one, not being English - the book gave me good insights into the historic convolutions of this foreign land within Great Britain. A good read, and you learn a lot.
As an incomer myself - though never felt like one, not being English - the book gave me good insights into the historic convolutions of this foreign land within Great Britain. A good read, and you learn a lot.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Easy to read and thought provoking
A great book for the time limited - flows really well and easy to pick up and put down. Thought provoking and written with clear care and attention to detail. Read more
Published 2 months ago by A. Owen
The Missionary Position
I found this book hard going. It's long and rather clumsily written, and has many annoying little inaccuracies, such as when a Welsh character talks about "the English with their... Read more
Published 12 months ago by amazing
Too true!
One reason not to put a story down is when you come to realise that so much of a fictional account, disguised location and a deliberate screen of comic characters, could be true. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Charles Mon.
An insghtful explanation for why Wales is as it is
Excellent. I work with community organisations, charities and social enterprises in Wales. I have met all the characters in one community or other. Read more
Published 16 months ago by M. Price
Dylan Thomas must be turning in his grave
The word 'satirical' has been used by one reviewer. I sincerely hope - but rather doubt - that was the intention of the author. Otherwise this book does a disservice to Wales. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Alighieri
Unputtdownable - read it in a day!
I don't know when I last got so immersed in a book! It's an unusual, satirical glimpse at Welsh speaking Wales. Read more
Published 19 months ago by S. Jones
Love, Strategies and Welsh Cakes
This book's clever construction and nifty narrative impress from beginning to end.
Thirsk has peppered his debut novel with philosophy, possibilities, poetry and... Read more
Thirsk has peppered his debut novel with philosophy, possibilities, poetry and... Read more
Published 20 months ago by E. M. Cusack
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
