Small Island (2004)
Who wrote it?
Andrea Levy (1956-2019; active 1994-2019) born Archway, London. UK. Of primarily Afro-Jamaican descent, she also has Jewish and Scots heritage. Her father came to Britain from Jamaica on the Empire Windrush in 1948. with his mother arriving the following year. She studied textiles and weaving at Middlesex Polytechnic in North London.
She began her career as a costume assistant, working for the BBC and the Royal Opera House, as well as starting a graphic design company with her husband. Having apparently not read by choice until the age of 23, she became both a voracious reader and also very aware of the relative dearth of (widely available) fiction by Black British authors. She began writing in her mid-30s, enrolling in the City Lit Creative Writing class in 1989.
After struggling for a time to find a publisher, her first novel Every Light in the House Burnin’ was published in 1994. Her second, Never Far From Nowhere (1996) was long-listed for the Women’s Prize in its first year. Both were partly autobiographical in nature, but a visit to Jamaica for the first time inspired her to shift focus to her heritage, first with 1999’s eighties-set Fruit of the Lemon and then with Small Island taking a look at the Windrush generation of her parents. As well as the Women’s Prize, it won the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
Her final novel, The Long Song, was published in 2010, winning the Walter Scott Prize and shortlisted for the Booker. A short story collection followed in 2014, before her untimely death in 2019 following a long battle with breast cancer.
What's it about?
Small Island is mainly set in 1948, in a London still rebuilding after the war. Its main focus is on four characters who end up living in the same house. They are the house’s owner Bernard Bligh, his wife Victoria “Queenie” Bligh and two of their lodgers, both recently arrived from Jamaica, Gilbert Joseph and Hortense, his wife. The novel jumps back and forward in time, with the “Before” sections covering the early life of all of the characters, including their wartime experiences.
Of particular note are Gilbert’s experiences as an RAF support officer, which largely consists of him attempting to do his job in the face of constant experience of racism, both from the English Midlands communities he finds himself in, and (more emphatically) from the US soldiers also based in the area; and Bernard’s own experiences as a reluctant conscript on active service in India, his subsequent return to England and withdrawal from society, and his racist shock at the fact that Queenie has let rooms in his house to Gilbert and other immigrants.
Hortense’s story is focused on her disappointment on arrival in the “Mother Country”, again suffering race-based discrimation and incredulous at the relatively poor conditions she and Gilbert find themselves in. It’s Queenie’s past encounter with Michael, another Jamaican from Hortense’s past, though, that proves the driving force for the novel’s dramatic conclusion.
What I liked
It’s another extremely honestly written book, following on from 2003’s Property. While I was overall less thrilled by this one, it does have the advantage of having being written from multiple perspectives, taking us into the minds both of those who suffer at the hands of racism and those who are emphatically racist, as well as characters who occupy more shades of grey.
Its most powerful sections are those that lean into that honesty. In the “Before” section that covers Gilbert’s wartime experiences in England, there are a series of chapters that conclude with ever-more shocking incidents of racism, all of which are met with a mixture of stoicism and befuddlement by Gilbert, a highly endearing character who is (almost) able to stay above the horrific abuse he is subjected to. The mirror of these sections is provided in the descent of Bernard on return to England, his previously obvious but quietly held racist opinions unleashed in shocking torrents against his unexpected lodgers, and then challenged by personal experience.
In between this we have the relative nuance of Hortense, who despite her obvious intelligence is surprised and uncomprehending of the racist motivations of much that befalls her, and Queenie, a more generally kind-hearted English character who nonetheless remains to at least some degree a product of her time, unable to quite escape the era and country that she inhabits.
Levy has reported that she found it hard to identify completely with either her “Black” or “white” heritage, especially having been raised in the relatively multicultural North London, and it’s evident that she’s able to switch between these varied and nuanced perspectives with ease.
There’s a good range of styles on display in here, with romance rubbing up against strong political commentary and genuine laugh out loud humour.
All this comes together to produce a book that’s easily readable despite its sometimes weighty themes, and its huge popularity (winning multiple awards including the more obviously populist Whitbread; TV adaptations; etc) very easy to understand.
What I didn’t like
Nothing especially, to be honest, but there was a slight sense in which it didn’t quite wow me as much as some of the other recent winners. It’s a book with many moments that I loved, rather than a book that I loved in its entirety.
I can’t quite say why, but I think it’s possibly at least partly stylistic: coming after a masterpiece of stylistic economy like Property, it felt a little “tell rather than show” and maybe in places a bit flabby.
Food & drink pairings
Badly cooked English foodstuffs, generally
Fun facts
Small Island won a 2005 “Best of the Best” Orange/Women’s Prize award. This marked the best book from the first ten years of the Prize, and was in part a riposte to various Booker “best of” Prizes (usually won by Midnight’s Children). I’m sure it was a popular choice, and it has a “weighty” feel compared to some of the other winners in the first decade, so I kind of get it. It was voted for by a panel of previous judges from the first ten years of the Prize.
The novel was adapted by the BBC for a two-part television series in 2009, starring Naomie Harris as Hortense, Ruth Wilson as Queenie, David Oyelowo as Gilbert and Benedict Cumberbatch as Bernard.
In 2019, a stage adaptation by Helen Edmundson premiered at the National Theatre.
Vanquished Foes
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Purple Hibiscus)
Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake)
Shirley Hazzard (The Great Fire)
Gillian Slovo (Ice Road)
Rose Tremain (The Colour)
Oddly, Oryx and Crake was the first Atwood I ever read, way back when. I remember enjoying it, but not quite enough to have persevered with her subsequent novels set in the same world. It was also nominated for the 2003 Booker. Any other tips from this year’s list?
2004’s Booker winner was a personal favourite, Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty.
Context
In 2004:
Madrid train bombings kill 192 people
Beslen school siege by Chechen rebels in Russia, ends with more than 330 dead
George W. Bush reelected President of the United States, defeating his Democratic challenger John Kerry
European Union expands by 10 new member states: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia
European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the first European Constitution
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are admitted to NATO, the largest expansion of the organization
Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine
Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide overthrown in a coup d'état
Summer Olympics return to Athens, Greece
Michael Schumacher wins his 7th and final Formula One World Championship
Mark Zuckerberg creates Facebook, initially for Harvard students only
Nintendo DS, the best selling handheld game console of all time, is released in North America
Edinburgh becomes UNESCO's first City of Literature
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club
Philip Roth, The Plot Against America
Alan Bennett, The History Boys
The Incredibles
Vera Drake
Million Dollar Baby
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Super Bowl half-time show "controversy" ft. Janet Jackson / Justin Timberlake
Kanye West, The College Dropout
The Killers, Hot Fuss
Arcade Fire, Funeral
Gwen Stefani, Love.Angel.Music.Baby.
Life Lessons
Christ, this country is full of terrible racists. I know it’s set in the past, but it’s not like it’s not still true :(
Score
8.5
Extremely readable, and in places stunning, it’s not quite up there for me as a cohesive whole. But it’s still very good and I understand the many plaudits it received.
I gave 2004 Booker winner (and long-time personal favourite) The Line of Beauty, a very generous (but who cares) 9.5.
Ranking to date:
Property (2003) - Valerie Martin - 9.5
The Idea of Perfection (2001) - Kate Grenville - 9
When I Lived in Modern Times (2000) - Linda Grant - 9
Larry’s Party (1998) - Carol Shields - 8.5
Bel Canto (2002) - Ann Patchett - 8.5
Small Island (2004) - Andrea Levy - 8.5
A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999) - Suzanne Berne - 8.5
A Spell of Winter (1996) - Helen Dunmore - 8
Fugitive Pieces (1997) - Anne Michaels - 6.5
Next up
I may spend a bit of time with some of this year’s Booker longlist. No grand ambition to read them all, but I feel like I need to at least get a sampling in before I return to the Women’s Prize with 2005’s winner We Need to Talk About Kevin.
