Showing 1-4 out of 62 reviews. Previous | Next

• I should just defer to Darryl’s (kidzdoc) excellent review! He nailed it perfectly! As you know I keep things much simpler, maybe it’s my blue-collar roots. This amazing novel follows two couples, one Jamaican, one English, as their lives intertwine in post-war London. At it’s core it’s a book about racism, and Levy does not flinch from all of it’s ugly implications. She has crafted beautifully realized characters, with my favorite being Gilbert, a Jamaican who joined the RAF. Once the war is over, he quickly becomes just another reviled black man. There is a fine moment when Gilbert spots a glittering broach on the sidewalk, proud of his good fortune and reaches down to find it nothing but flies on a dog turd. He also meets a white woman in the street that offers him sticky candy and he breaks into sobs at her sheer kindness. This book has many such stirring moments.I want to thank my friends here on LT, for this recommendation and now I’ve found my favorite read of the year…so far!

  5.00 out of 5

  msf59

• What a wonderful sweeping read! I so enjoyed this wonderful 2004 Orange Prize Winner. Small Island has four protagonists/ narrators. Each of them tells their story from their unique experiences and personalities. Queenie is a woman who is relatively easy going and lives in England pre World War 2 - and marries Bernard. Bernard is much older man, staid and difficult . He lives with his aging father. Eventually Bernard heads out to India as part of the RAF, leaving Queenie behind to look after his father and survive the London bombings of WW2.Hortense and Gilbert come to England from a completly different background and set of circumstances .Gilbert has lived as a somewhat happy go lucky fellow in Jamaica. By contrast, Hortense, also Jamaican, has been brought up by a caucasion family , and has been sent to school by the family that took her in as a child. When the caucasion family falls on hard times - Hortense is sent packing to make a life for herself. Hortense is a proud person. She barely knows Gilbert, but when she discovers that Gilbert is going to England to fight with England as part of the Commonwealth, Hortense pays Gilbert's way to England and marries him purely as a way to get to England in the hopes of a better life.Many shocks and conflicts await all parties in the story. Racial prejudice within the Army itself and racial and class tensions and prejudices with in England serve to futher make life difficult for all during WW2.To say more would spoil the plot. But all of these threads eventually come together, and we get an insightful look into Jamica and England during and before WW2 , as well as an inside look into the four different perspectives of each protagonist.This is sweeping book- crossing times, cultures, and countries. Conversely, it is so personal as each protagonist tells his or her story . While the topic matter is serious, Andrea Levy never gets bogged down with over sentimentality , and she injects a certain amount of levity. I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful story. It's a " cracking good read".

  5.00 out of 5

  vancouverdeb

• A gripping novel, my favorite of 2010 so far! Told in 4 voices - 2 Jamaican, 2 English, Andrea Levy's well-woven tale deals with racism and relationships during and after World War II. The characters were complex enough that I liked them all individually, but sometimes in their dealings with one another, I did not. I"ve no doubt that the voices of Hortense, Gilbert, Queenie, and Bernard with stay with me for some time. Very highly recommended!

  5.00 out of 5

  Kimaoverstreet

• The "small island" of the title could refer to Jamaica, to England, to Queenie's boarding house. What impressed me most about this novel is that just as you were feeling sympathy toward one character and resentment toward another, the point of view changes and you then understand the motivation, heartaches and ambitions of the character you had previously thought was selfish, or boorish, or insipid.

  5.00 out of 5

  shihtzu

Reviews provided by Librarything.

No reviews here.