Re-Building Broken Britain with Broken Hearts

Small Island - Andrea Levy

Award-winning novel, Small Island, is the moving tale of the black and white divide between people in England shortly after World War II. Following four characters, two Jamaican, two English, Levy explores the effects of the war, the disillusionment of those seeking a better life in Britain and the difficulties of love and prejudice.

Recently made into a BBC TV series, Small Island has recently received a new lease of life. The novel was critically acclaimed upon its initial release, but the popularity of TV has allowed people to rediscover this wonderful book.

Split into chapters told from the point of view of the four main characters, reading about their hopes, fears and darkest secrets alligns you strangely with none of them. You learn to love them as you share their experiences but you also can't help but dislike a little aspect of each one of them; one's stubborness, another's grumpiness and some pretentiousness force you to look at what is surrounding these characters. Levy looks at the difficulties post-war Britain faced as it simultaneously tried to rebuild itself as well accepting the new arrivals from overseas.

Nevertheless, this book feels far from preachy as it is not entirely focused on racism. The most striking element of the novel is not just the difficulty that people of different races had with loving and liking each other, Levy also looks at the problems that men and women must overcome in order to love one another. The two women of the story, Hortense from Jamaica and Queenie from England make tough, selfish and selfless decisions throughout their lives and still struggle to live with the men they marry. Yet, despite appearances, their ability to love links these two incredibly different women forever in a way they can never realise.

It is Levy's ability to divulge the characters' secrets to her readers, but not to the other characters themselves that makes this the beautiful story that it is. Sometimes you feel that if everyone told the truth, everything would become clearer and more simple - of course, life is rarely that easy. This novel is steeped in reality and the author subtly proves that bigger issues, as well as pure human nature, sometimes get in the way of the truth. Social obligations mould these characters whether they fight against them or not and it is the truth about post-war society that is really revealed in this book.

Possibly the best thing about Small Island is the unexpected ending. It is a moving and compassionate tale that ends with the same hard-hitting reality that the entire novel provides. The book is full of small surprises but the last is the best and it draws the story neatly together as Hortense, Queenie, Bernard and Gilbert are brought together in a final climax. It is difficult to describe suchly a deeply detailed book without spoiling some of its beauty - all that can be said is that everyone should pick this one up and experience humanity at both its best and its worst.

Please comment if you have anything to add to this review of 'Small Island'.

A Simple Issue of Right and Wrong

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Ok, so perhaps the issue in this book is not that simple. It tells the tale of Atticus Finch - lawyer, well-respected gentleman, widow and father of two. Through the eyes of his young daughter, Scout, you witness Atticus' unwinnable fight against the racism that raged through America in the 1930s, as he tries to defend a young black man accused of rape.

Racism continues to be a sensitive issue and has a history as old as the world. However, Lee's book approaches it in a completely unique way - from a child's point of view. Ok, so there have been other books that approach racism from a child's perspective, Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman for example, but they don't tell it in quite the same way. The narrator is 6 years old at the beginning of the book and by the end of it, only 9. I'm sure many of us can still remember the weightless, carefree life we led, where the most stressful thing was how many sweets you could get for 10p and for how long you could make them last. That same lifestyle is applied to Scout.

Scout, her brother, Jem and best friend, Dill all share the same fantasy - 'Boo' Radley. The man next door that hasn't been seen or spoken about for years by the Finches or anyone else in the town. They think up endless games and ways to tempt him from his house, despite warnings not to, and Scout, despite her private fears of her invisible neighbour, plays along to keep up with the two older boys. She is reckless, scrappy and determined and her life revolves around her father, reading and 'Boo' Radley. Therefore, when the trial of Tom Robinson enters her life, she does not consider it any different from any other trial fought by Atticus.

It is this stance that makes the book so touching - Scout does not consider the 'coloured' people any different. There was a time when none of us considered each other any different - whether it was the girl in the wheelchair, the boy with the ginger hair or the man with one arm, no one was different to you. As children, everyone is equal.

With this childlike perspective, To Kill a Mockingbird allows you to make your own mind up, not only about the issue of racism, but also about all the prejudices often faced by people everyday. Whether you're the bitter, old woman who insults people to hide her own problems, or the lonely Mayella Ewell, people often judge others before they know the full story - most people that is, excepting children.

It needn't be said but this book is a brilliantly written, brilliantly constructed account of a single issue of prejudice that embodies every picture. What Lee is teaching us is to view the people with the innocent mind of a child every once in a while, rather than make judgements formed by years of heartache, sterotypes and experience. Whilst sometimes our experience can come in handy, by judging people before we know them we may be missing some of the best experiences of our lives. There will be some experiences we should avoid and others that we should embrace, but in both cases we should put ourselves more freely in other people's shoes. Maybe then we will even get a better view of ourselves.

Please comment if you have anything to add to this review of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.