A review by claire_michelle18
Small Island, by Andrea Levy
4.0
I found this very slow to start with but a really interesting story, following the experience of a Jamaican couple Hortense and Gilbert both separately and together through the latter years of the Second World War and then their move to England in the late 1940s. The constant, everyday racism they face once they move to Britain is relentless - the scene where Hortense applies for a teaching job only to be told her hard earned qualifications aren't valid in Britain is particularly heartbreaking.
Gilbert and Hortense's story is intertwined with that of a white British couple, Queenie and Bernard, giving an interesting perspective on (slightly) differing attitudes to black people and people of colour among white people. I could have done without the bits told from Bernard's perspective though...
Gilbert and Hortense's story is intertwined with that of a white British couple, Queenie and Bernard, giving an interesting perspective on (slightly) differing attitudes to black people and people of colour among white people. I could have done without the bits told from Bernard's perspective though...