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amandaquotidianbooks 's review for:
Small Island
by Andrea Levy
Andrea Levy’s Small Island discusses post-WWII Jamaican immigration and English racism. Told in two timelines across four characters, their lives become entwined in unforeseen ways as we learn how they came to live in their boarding house.
The first thing I appreciated about this book was Levy’s lyrical yet understated prose. It captured the different characters’ voices and dialects well. The chapters were often shorter, which made it easy for my to read just one more chapter. Her depictions of racism was varied and realistic, bringing to light how microagressions can be as damaging as physical violence.
At times it felt like I had made no progress in the story because we begin after the war and then fill in the characters’ backstories. But they were so vividly psychologically drawn that spending any time with them was a treat. I will definitely be reading more by Andrea Levy soon.
The first thing I appreciated about this book was Levy’s lyrical yet understated prose. It captured the different characters’ voices and dialects well. The chapters were often shorter, which made it easy for my to read just one more chapter. Her depictions of racism was varied and realistic, bringing to light how microagressions can be as damaging as physical violence.
At times it felt like I had made no progress in the story because we begin after the war and then fill in the characters’ backstories. But they were so vividly psychologically drawn that spending any time with them was a treat. I will definitely be reading more by Andrea Levy soon.