Synopsis
from Goodreads: Hortense
Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her
suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert
Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but
finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His
white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends
Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the
unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat
with issues of his own to resolve.
Told
in these four voices, SMALL ISLAND is a courageous novel of tender
emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of
shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of
insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of the
immigrant's life.
Stats
for my copy:
Trade paperback, published by Picador, 2005; received through Book Mooch.
First
line:
I thought I'd been to Africa.
My
thoughts: Written
in first person POV, with the narration alternating between the four
main characters, the author did a wonderful job of giving each
character a distinctive voice and personality, drawing us into his or
her story completely.
Gilbert
joins the West Indian RAF, eager to defend the Mother Country, which
he loves without reservation. He gets a brief trip to America, which
he is eager to see. He's impressed with the vast abundance of food
available to the military there, but puzzled by how he and his fellow
Jamaican citizens are treated differently, better, than the black
people in America. Once in his beloved Mother Country, he is
astounded to realize that its residents know nothing about Jamaica.
“You
British?” one of them finally asked.
“Yes”,
I said.
“I
hope I don't cause offence if I tell you that to my eye you don't
look British. You must be rare as a sunbeam in a cave.”
“I
am from Jamaica.”
“Jamaica,
England?”
Had
no one outside the Caribbean ever heard of Jamaica? (pg 129)
After
the war is over, Gilbert and Hortense marry in Jamaica, and he
travels back to England to look for work and find a place to live,
sending for Hortense to join him six months later. She arrives
expecting to be immersed in culture and class, and live in a nice
house with a fancy doorbell. She is not expecting a single dirty room
in an old house with a nosy white landlady who goes to market dressed
in what appear to be her bedclothes. Hortense was a teacher in
Jamaica, and expects to teach in England as well, but those hopes are
quickly dashed. She and Gilbert didn't marry Gilbert for love, but
for the chance to immigrate. The sections of story narrated by
Gilbert and Hortense were my favorite. They are both fascinating and
appealing characters, motivated by a desire for a better life in a
country they've been brought up to love and respect, but which looks
down on them because of the color of their skin.
Except
for people like Queenie. When the war ended, her husband did not
return, and she began renting out rooms in their home to support
herself. Despite the disapproval and disdain of her neighbors, she
gladly rents rooms to not only Gilbert and Hortense, but to another
Jamaican immigrant as well. Queenie's and Bernard's sections of
narration were still engrossing, but I didn't feel quite as embedded
or invested in their lives as with Gilbert and Hortense.
The
author's writing is very evocative, with just the right amount of
humor and lightness thrown in among the serious topics.
“Madam,”
I began, but she was gone, rattling through the crowd like a
laxative. (pg 157)
Racism
is the prevalent theme, treated with both dignity and matter of
factness, a way of life that each character reacted to differently.
Bernard is the least visible character, and the least likable, though
in the end he shows unexpected compassion and strength. When the end
of the book came, I was left wanting more, having questions that
still needed answers. A secret was revealed, which provided a link
between two characters that was not resolved to my satisfaction. But
that's a part of life, right?
A
beautifully written and thought provoking look at a country and it's
people torn apart by and then putting themselves back together after
a war. Read it.
