Small Island follows the lives of four people before, during
and after the second world war. Gilbert was born in Jamaica, the eldest of
eight children. He is well educated and would like to become a lawyer. This
changes when he volunteers for the RAF and goes to England to fight. After the
war he has to return to Jamaica but quickly moves back to England and gets a
job with Royal Mail. Queenie is born in England to a butcher father and mother.
She gets taken to London by her aunt so Queenie can help in her shop. Her aunt
dies and Queenie marries Bernard to have stability in her life. She is alone
during the war and looks after Bernard’s father. She rents rooms out to
soldiers. One of them is a Jamaican that she takes a liking to. After the war
she continues to rent out rooms including one to Gilbert. Hortense was born in
Jamaica where she trains to be a teacher. She marries Gilbert after knowing him
for a few weeks because she wants to move to England. She follows him to
England once he has moved in to Queenie’s house. Bernard was born in England
and goes to fight the war in India.
The book switches from 1948 to before 1948. As each
character gets introduced, at an appropriate point, you learn about their past.
For some characters that takes more than one flashback. Having the immediate
contrast between the two time periods helps show the impact of war and how long
it takes for things to get back to some kind of normal. The time changes are
carefully chosen and come along to answer your questions just when you need
them. The two locations are vivid too and you can picture exactly what’s going
on. Not being familiar with what villages and towns are like in Jamaica, that
was more difficult to picture. But even if you can’t see it, you definitely
feel the difference between Jamaica and England.
All four of the main characters were really well written and
I felt I understood them. Gilbert and Queenie seemed more savvy whereas
Hortense and Bernard seemed a bit more naive. It is a very big culture shock
for Hortense as the British people she knew in Jamaica were more upper class
and I think Hortense was sort of expecting everyone to be like that. She is
determined not to let people visibly get to her despite the way she and other
black people are treated. India is a culture shock for Bernard and he really
doesn’t like it. It’s very much an us and them vibe with the British soldiers
and the Indian natives. All of these interactions between cultures is
interesting.
I was a bit worried to begin with as this is an
award-winning book and that can mean they are difficult to read and a bit
pretentious. This book was none of those things. The writing style was easy to
fall in to and I just wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to
happen. When the point of view changed it tells you at the start of the chapter
but they are all so distinct that you knew who’s head you were in immediately.
Not being a particularly plot-driven novel, there was just the right amount of
description to character interaction.
I really enjoyed this book which surprised me a little bit.
I enjoy novels set around the war that focus on what it was like for those left
at home. This delivered in that but also introduced me to the topic of what it
was like for immigrants coming over at that time. Everyone would have been
suspicious of new people because that had been their mind set for years.
Despite not having segregation we sort of did unofficially as far as a lot of
people were concerned. Racism is a fascinating topic because for some it is
just ignorance and an unwillingness to learn about other people rather than any
actual hatred towards those of a different race. I’d certainly like to read
more of Andrea Levy’s books and would recommend Small Island to everyone.
Overall rating 5 out of 5.
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