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Review
'Every scene is rich in implication, entrancing and disturbing at the same time; the literary equivalent of a switch-back ride' (The Sunday Times )
'What makes Levy's writing so appealing is her even-handedness. All her characters can be weak, hopeless, brave, good, bad - whatever their colour. The writing is rigorous and the bittersweet ending, with its unexpected twist, touching... People can retain great dignity, however small their island' (Independent on Sunday )
'What makes Levy's writing so appealing is her even-handedness. All her characters can be weak, hopeless, brave, good, bad - whatever their colour. The writing is rigorous and the bittersweet ending, with its unexpected twist, touching... People can retain great dignity, however small their island' (Independent on Sunday )
'A cracking good read'
(Margaret Forster )'A great read...honest, skilful, thoughtful and important'
(Guardian )'Explores the Caribbean experience of immigration to
'Wonderful...seamless...a magnificent achievement'
(Linda Grant )'Never less than finely written, delicately and often comically observed, and impressively rich in detail and little nuggets of stories'
(Evening Standard )'An engrossing read - slyly funny, passionately angry and wholly involving'
(Daily Mail )'A work of great imaginative power'
(Linton Kwesi Johnson )'As full of warmth and jokes and humanity as you could wish'
(Time Out )'Gives us a new urgent take on our past'
(Vogue )Daily Mail, February 6, 2004
‘It’s an engrossing read - slyly funny, passionately angry and wholly involving’
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
131 of 137 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Andrea Levy's novel (her fourth, and how ashamed do I feel now for never having heard of her before?) has already won the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Novel award, and is now favourite on the shortlist for the overall Whitbread Book of the Year. It deserves them all. (And this is a message, too: the Whitbread is now the award to watch. Didn't it daringly give ostensibly a children's book the Book of the Year award in 2001 for Pullman's exceptional The Amber Spyglass? In the Booker this year, Small Island didn't even make the longlist.)
The 'today' of the novel is 1948, when Queenie Bligh has given up waiting for her husband Bernard to come back from his service in the Second World War, and to make ends meet has let rooms in her house out to immigrants from Jamaica, among them Gilbert Joseph and his wife Hortense. And that is Small Island in a sentence. But it takes us back through the four main characters' lives before and during the war, each speaking to us in their own voice. The ventriloquism is elegant and brilliantly managed, making us sympathetic to all the characters in turn, and gripped by their flowingly told stories; so much so that when they come into conflict at the end of the novel, we are as torn as they are, and don't know which way to turn.
There is tragedy and comedy everywhere in Small Island, and Levy seems incapable of misjudging the tone, whether she wants to depict casual racism, tender young friendship, cold middle-class romance, or the numb relentlessness of twentieth century warfare. The writing is frequently beautiful, and she has a way of approaching a new scene sidelong, rather than head-on, that brings the reader into it with freshness and curiosity. Minor characters come alive. If she puts a foot wrong, it may be in the particular details (can't give it away) of the central coincidence which drives the major 'twist' of the book - the world's not that small an island, surely - but if you already love the book by then, you'll shrug and let it go.
Small Island, then, is an exceptional achievement, an outright, downright, upright, leftright masterpiece. There's something for everyone - the formal artistry of the four voices, the back-and-forward structure, the crossing and recrossing of fates, the heartwrenching losses, the sparky dialogue. I'm just sorry that it's only the 18th of January as I write this because then it sounds like a gag when I say it's the best book I've read all year. But you know what I mean.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author brilliantly tells this wartime tale of a Jamaican airman who returns to post war England with his young wife to find a less than welcoming populace awaiting them.The "small island" of the title is the derisory name Jamaicans give to the smaller sattelite islands whose populace have less than worldly ways.
The airman and his wife come to regard themselves,in turn,as small islanders lost in the strange,cold London of the 1940's.However, the reader soon finds the true "small island" to be a Britain given to insular attitudes and racial ignorance.
The airman and his wife come to regard themselves,in turn,as small islanders lost in the strange,cold London of the 1940's.However, the reader soon finds the true "small island" to be a Britain given to insular attitudes and racial ignorance.
35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is well deserving of its accolades; Whitbread Book of the Year and the Orange Prize for fiction. It covers the period at the end of the Second World War, when men from the Commonwealth who'd fought on Britain's side emigrated to the "Mother Land", expecting a very different welcome.
The story is related by the four main characters. Two are from Jamaica, Hortense and Gilbert; more British than the British, they leave their homeland where they are respected members of a community, to seek their golden future. Gilbert hopes to train as a lawyer but finds prejudice against him and has to settle for a job driving a Royal Mail van. Hortense finds similar prejudice when she applies for a teaching job. With her impeccable manners and dress sense, she is horrified by the coarse way of life in her new home.
They take lodgings with Queenie, a great character, who is letting out rooms to make ends meet while her husband, Bernard, is fighting in India. It is assumed that he will not return, so when he suddenly reappears, the comfortable balance within the house is tipped. He demands that these 'coloureds' leave immediately.
There are a number of themes covered by the book, but the one that stuck with me was the problem encountered by men who had risked their lives to fight against Hitler and deserved recognition, but instead were treated with contempt when they arrived on British shores as civilians. Also that there were people, like Queenie, who ignored what other people thought and befriended these outcasts.
Highly recommended.
The story is related by the four main characters. Two are from Jamaica, Hortense and Gilbert; more British than the British, they leave their homeland where they are respected members of a community, to seek their golden future. Gilbert hopes to train as a lawyer but finds prejudice against him and has to settle for a job driving a Royal Mail van. Hortense finds similar prejudice when she applies for a teaching job. With her impeccable manners and dress sense, she is horrified by the coarse way of life in her new home.
They take lodgings with Queenie, a great character, who is letting out rooms to make ends meet while her husband, Bernard, is fighting in India. It is assumed that he will not return, so when he suddenly reappears, the comfortable balance within the house is tipped. He demands that these 'coloureds' leave immediately.
There are a number of themes covered by the book, but the one that stuck with me was the problem encountered by men who had risked their lives to fight against Hitler and deserved recognition, but instead were treated with contempt when they arrived on British shores as civilians. Also that there were people, like Queenie, who ignored what other people thought and befriended these outcasts.
Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.5 stars (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)
I had had 'Small Island' on my kindle for a while, having bought it in the sale, a while ago. Anyway, it was chosen by my book group for May's read and I was apprehensive about it. Read more
Published 19 days ago by C. Rucroft
from Jamaica to England
Engrossing tale of two couples and the way their lives interweave. It's 1948 and Hortense and Gilbert have recently arrived from Jamaica- he as an airman in the war, she to join... Read more
Published 1 month ago by sally tarbox
An excellent read
This is an engaging, well-written and troubling story. The interaction of Queenie Bligh and Gilbert and Hortense Joseph forms the central story. Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. V. Clarke
Great Book.....Brilliant Ending
Very emotional and a very believable book. Loved it! Especially the ending, had me on the edge of my seat!
Published 3 months ago by Vixs
Fantastic
Studying this book for AS Level English Literature, and it's absolutely fantastic. Well written, with an interesting approach to expressing the perspectives of each character. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jess
Small Island
I bought this book as part of my daughter's english literature book list. She said that the text size is good and that although the story starts of interesting, it gets a bit... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Amonavis
Incredible!
Bit speachless on how good this book is. Its simply a feast for the eyes with a story so heartfelt and spinetinkling, and characters so real that you feel they almost live down... Read more
Published 7 months ago by T. Jacobs
Small Island, big triumph
I picked up this book on holiday on the small island of Reunion, just east of Madagascar, and was soon rapt in the story of Hortense and Gilbert Joseph's emigration from Jamaica to... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Tom Doyle
A must read!
Simply brilliant! This is one of the best books I've read this decade (and I've read many). Andrea Levy is a sensational writer. There is not a wasted word or emotion in this book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Elizabeth Young
Superb
I agree with what most other reviewers have said and am also ashamed that I hadn't heard of Andrea levy before reading this. The TV series also seemed to pass me by. Read more
Published 8 months ago by 1reader
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