TY  - BOOK
AU  - Levy,Andrea
TI  - Small island
SN  - 9780755355952 (pbk.)
AV  - PR6112.E889 S63 2009
U1  - 823.914 22
PY  - 2009///, c2004
CY  - London
PB  - Headline Review
KW  - Jamaicans
KW  - England
KW  - London
KW  - Fiction
KW  - Immigrants
KW  - Racism
KW  - London (England)
KW  - Social conditions
KW  - 20th century
KW  - Historical fiction
N1  - Originally published: London: Review, 2004
N2  - In 1948, four very different Britons are thrown together in a central-London terrace. Queenie Bligh, an unremarkable working-class woman, is awaiting the return from war service of her husband Bernard. In the meantime, she takes as a boarder a black Jamaican man who was briefly billeted to her house during the war. Then Gilbert's new bride, the prim and proud Hortense, turns up from Jamaica bearing misapprehension about English life and the place of a black woman in it. Then there's the long-awaited return of Queenie's husband, Bernard, who is racist, and somewhat war-damaged. Hortense discovers that her status is the same as that of any other black migrant. The revelation almost destroys her self-esteem, but it also sets her on a path to self-discovery. She ends by beginning to understand Gilbert's strength, Queenie's kindness and the sympathies she shares with them
ER  -