Small Island

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Reviewed by Claudine

This book brings the racial discrimination of England in 1948 up, close and personal through the accounts of Gilbert Joseph and Hortense, who later marries Gilbert and moves from Jamaica to join him in London, to find it vastly different from what she had expected. The part where she attempts to get a job as a teacher but is met with callous ridicule makes you bristle with indignation at the shabby reception she receives, based on nothing but her skin colour. Many move to London hoping to have a shot at leading a better life, only to meet with obstacles one after another, in all areas of life. Gilbert could not even find lodging upon arriving in London as no one would willingly rent out rooms to black people at that time.

But it’s not a book that acts as a mouthpience to lash out at white people and Levy provides balance through the account of Queenie Bligh, who takes in Jamaican lodgers, to the annoyance of her neighbours who think that ‘darkies bring down a neighbourhood’. Through Queenie, we observe the disapproval which white people face in helping the Jamaicans who move to England after their tour of duty in World War 2. Finally through Bernard, Queenie’s husband, who serves in India for a few years, we see an inner transformation, if somewhat faint, from disdain of black people to a point where he is willing to at least comtemplate raising a half-caste baby. The story concludes by bringing all to a realistic but painful end with afterthoughts.

It’s definitely a book worth your time as it captures so well the spirit of survival among the black people in a then very white-dominated London and of kindness and generosity and personal struggles of individuals who dare to think and act differently despite societal pressures, in a period of upheaval and transition.