The story is of two couples living in London after WWII, one Jamaican and one British. Queenie and Bernard own a house in London and when Bernard doesn't return from the war she begins renting rooms to returning Jamaican soldiers. Hortense and Gilbert are Jamaican who married on Hortense's money and Gilbert went first to England to set them up. He has a room at Queenie's. When Hortense arrives they must learn to live together in an England that is much more racist than they expected. When Bernard does show up, issues including interracial relationships and PTSD become the focal point. This was an interesting look at expectations and reality and what can be done to live an acceptable life. ( )

read this for class and was genuinely taken aback at how much i loved this. and how much i learned!

you can argue that small island is trying to do too much...lots of POVs and lessons to learn here. but each one was given its proper time in my opinion.

i found bernards sexual issues to be particularly interesting. We've seen bullies and racists written but we seldom hear about their sexual and romantic repression brought on by the very same racism they keep close.

and queenie is a scarily accurate illustration of white allyship, specifically in an individual who is truly convinced there is very little learning involved in it (and that being an ally for selfish reasons is good enough). i respect queenie so much for being able to break some barriers and ruffle feathers. at the same time, i think she enjoys ruffling them and does not consider the danger of it, especially for her tenants who will ACTUALLY be affected by that danger. which i think is such a frustrating part of white allyship…you don’t get to stir shit up and say “hey look what i just did!”. she can’t keep her tenants safe from these people shes angering and bernard’s reappearance (and the theatre scene) are great examples of that. lots of allyship comes from resistance to the people who brought us up. and once that rebellion is no longer fun, it’s only about what you can get from it (ie, being a white knight to feel better about yourself or fucking the men you’re meant to be advocating for.) i did all that talking to say that queenies character felt so real to me. and i also don’t hate her! i think she’s doing her best and that’s obvious to me in her selfless act at the end. maybe it’s not selfless to you but let’s consider the alternatives! no black child should live in a world that will grow to hate or resent it for literally no reason. you can argue that sheltering them from it (aka bernard) will only make them unprepared for it (aka racism) but our parents and our childhoods are some of the most formative tools we have. why make a kid suffer for the sake of preparation? some of us were simply ignored and talked to harshly as a kid and it still affects our ability to communicate and love. so i think it’s pretty selfless to give him the opportunity to not live in a household with a man, however caring he is now, that will resent his skin, his face, his heritage. and let’s also be honest. bernard is only soft towards micheal because he’s a literal newborn. the minute he made a mistake, perhaps fulfilling a stereotype, michael would be just like the rest of them. can you tell i feel strongly about this? this anger is good. it means bernard is real too, which is terrifying! frightening even.

anyways. i thought hortense and gilbert’s slow love story was one of most impressive aspects of the story. but i think the whole micheal situation coming full circle was expected and at the same time, did not feel believable. things happen i guess! ultimately though all my lil negative tidbits did not actually affect my reading as a whole and i thoroughly enjoyed it. ( )

So I'm reading this book, and I start finding myself spending a lot more time scrolling aimlessly on Reddit rather than reading my book; this is a red flag.

One of the problems is that the book starts off with Hortense narrating, and she is a truly unlikeable character, just off-putting in the extreme. Then from her experiences we switch to Gilbert's, which are full of racism and very difficult to read (I know, I can't read about what other people lived through, I'm horrible). By the time it switched over to Queenie's chapters I was not getting any pleasure from reading this book, and was not really interested in what she might add to the mix. It was obvious that things were just going to be shit for these people, and they were not interesting enough to make me sit through that. I made it about halfway through the book, and most of that was because I was unconsciously afraid I would look like a racist if I didn't read and finish this book. Then I remembered that reading is my hobby, and reading (or not reading) something out of fear of what others might think is sick. So I returned the book to the library and grooved on.

Character-driven historical fiction set in 1948 (and flashing back to “Before”) about two mismatched couples, Britons Bernard and Queenie, and Jamaicans Gilbert and Hortense. It tells a story of the migration of the two Jamaicans to post-WWII London, and the differences between their expectations and the realities. Though Gilbert has served in the RAF, fighting in WWII for the “Mother Country,” he and Hortense experience racism and intolerance.

In Jamaica, Hortense dreams of living in England, where she believes she will have a much better life. She agrees to fund Gilbert’s journey in return for his promise to send for her once he gets settled in London. Gilbert aspires to law school. He is educated but can only find work as a driver. Queenie suffers through the Blitz in London. She takes in Caribbean tenants, including Gilbert, to earn rental income. Bernard’s military service takes him to India, where he endures a variety of traumatic ordeals. When he fails to return, Queenie decides he has died in the war.

The strength of this novel lies in the characters. Levy weaves together multiple voices into a thought-provoking narrative that sheds light on the history of race and class in Britain. Each of the four tells his or her story in first person, so the reader becomes well-acquainted with them. Some are more likeable than others, but all feel authentic. The writing is richly detailed, providing a vivid sense of what life was like at the time in England, India, and Jamaica. Parts of this story are gut-wrenching and engender a feeling of outrage at the racial hatred directed toward the Jamaican characters. The author uses sarcastic humor to help develop the characters’ relationships and provide a break between harsh scenes. The ending is particularly emotional and well-crafted, providing a ray of hope for the future. It should appeal to those interested in modern classics or the history of multiculturalism in England.
( )

Set in the years past World War II, a Jamaican immigrant faces racism in Great Britain. While it's not an easy read, it's an important one because it shows racism occurred in many places around the globe--not just in America. ( )