A review by serendipitysbooks
Small Island by Andrea Levy

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

 Small Island is set mainly in the UK in 1948 and centres around four people. Gilbert is a Jamaican who served in the British Air Force. He rents a room from Queenie. Gilbert’s wife Hortense joins him and later Queenie’s husband Bernard returns. I found this story really easy to get engrossed in. The characters were well-drawn and distinctive through their mannerisms and style of speech and the interplay between them fascinating. Some were unlikeable but as their backstories (the story moved back and forth in time but was never difficult to follow) unfolded I was able to sympathise with them a little and to understand what was driving them while nevertheless feeling relieved as they evolved for the better. I liked the way some significant historical events such an attempt by US servicemen to segregate a local picture theatre were folded into the plot. The book highlighted the conditions faced by those of the Windrush generation in a nuanced way. I especially loved Hortense’s thoughts on the hygiene standard’s of British shops and how this was juxtaposed with the way many English people judged these new migrants. The issue of race was ever present and the decision made by Queenie at the end of the novel highlighted her recognition of the reality of racism in the UK at the time. 
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