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NativeTongue
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Posted: Thursday March 10th, 2005 14:21 |
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| anyone read this book what were your thoughts.
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Madam Butterfly
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Posted: Thursday March 10th, 2005 21:51 |
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| I am currantly reading it, so i will suspend judgment until i have finished the book. I have however read another book of hers, "Fruit of the lemon" quite a while ago which i thought was OK. I think it was sad in the fact that there are characters like the main one who actually exist. However, going by F.O.T.L and Small island, i have to say that i don'tlike the way the author represents black people. Or maybe i just have no sympathy for her main characters. She does make it difficult. But i guess not all main characters have to be ones we sympa/empathize with.
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NativeTongue
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Posted: Friday March 11th, 2005 10:48 |
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| hmm what is it about them that you find difficult to sympathise with.
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MissNyomie
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Posted: Tuesday March 15th, 2005 14:08 |
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I've read the book, thoroughly enjoyed it. I love Hortense....I like the way she held herslef even in her worst times. Form talking to my Grandparents about their experiences of coming to England from JA in those days. I believe it was an honest account of what it was like.
The EXPO that Queenie went to was something I've actually read about and seen pictures of....and one of my next door neighbours, ( old white couple in their late 70's) remembers when that was running.
I enjoyed the book and thought it was well written, all the characters lives intertwined and collided towards the end. (Hortense and Guilbert adopting Queenie's illegitmate child with Michael)
I would like to see the book made into film. I think it's a story that White and Blacks need to see. Also because of the era it's set in the cinematography should be something special. The issue hasn't really been challenged in cinema as yet. We usually see the struggle of BLACKS in America but not of those in England.
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Madam Butterfly
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Posted: Tuesday March 15th, 2005 17:30 |
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MissNyomie wrote: all the characters lives intertwined and collided towards the end. (Hortense and Guilbert adopting Queenie's illegitmate child with Michael)
Well THANK YOU for SPOILING it for ME!! (Note to self, put MissNyomi on hate list!)         (yes, those WERE all the angry smileys i could find!)
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jazztalking
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Posted: Tuesday March 15th, 2005 18:55 |
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Sorry..But Hortense is not an admirable character. She spends half of the book lusting after her light skinned wutless adopted brother and the other half looking down her nose at Gilbert - who is the real heart of the book. The novel however is absolutely hilarious. I have a sneaky feeling that Andrea Levy - who is a jewish Jamaican - based Hortense on her own mother who she admitted was quite racist to fellow black Jamiacans. Hortense is being "sent up" terribly in the novel..she thinks that she can speak excellent English but white English people can't understand a word she says. The final insult is when the man she lusted after, Michael (who has a penchant for white woman) impregnates Hortense' and Gilberts landlady and Hortense ( not knowing this) agrees to adopt the child. This is perhaps Levy`s bitter revenge on Hortense for her Pride.
Did I enjoy the book...its one of the best I have ever read. Do I feel sympathy for Hortense? Yes, even though you feel she richly deserve her comeuppance. Is she evil? No, she is just very young, haughty and and a little foolish.
Best bits..Gilbert in America; the race riot outside the London cinema; the Jamaica episodes especially the ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS bees episode and the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING description of how Gilberts donkey is stung to death by a swarm of bees.
Absolutely amazing novel. Buy it tomorrow.
Last edited on Tuesday March 15th, 2005 18:56 by jazztalking
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Madam Butterfly
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Posted: Tuesday March 15th, 2005 20:54 |
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| Gee, does anybody else want to spoil the book for me!?!? maybe make a billboard poster out of all the major plotpoints and put it outside my window?!?!?!
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MissNyomie
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Posted: Wednesday March 16th, 2005 11:10 |
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@Madam Butterfly
The thread did ask, if you've read the book and what where your thoughts? You knew people where going to review it.
BUT Sorry for spoiling it for you.................
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Madam Butterfly
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Posted: Wednesday March 16th, 2005 11:21 |
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first up my comments were tongue in cheek, so don't tek it so serious  second, you could have commented on the book without arbitarily giving away SPECIFIC plot points!!! 
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MissNyomie
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Posted: Wednesday March 16th, 2005 11:41 |
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first up my comments were tongue in cheek, so don't tek it so serious second, you could have commented on the book without arbitarily giving away SPECIFIC plot points!!!
OH....I realise that.....I'm not taking it seriously. However I've never heard of a book review that doesn't discuss plots and characters.
Don't you think you should stay clear of this thread until you've read it. Just so that nothing else spoils your reading experience, cause it is a very good book.
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Madam Butterfly
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Posted: Wednesday March 16th, 2005 12:07 |
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while i do take and agree with your point, i still stand by people not ARBITARILY giving away plot lines. For example, you could have just said:
all the characters lives intertwined and collided towards the end.
You didn't have to add:
(Hortense and Guilbert adopting Queenie's illegitmate child with Michael)
I will admit that i am one of those people who peeks at the last page of a book! so i realized that at some point hotense and gilbert had a child. But i preferred to believe that maybe hortense had finally softened, gotton over michael and come to love gilbert and had a child with him.
I also suspected that queenei and michael had had some kind of contact, after her father in law was following gilbert around, and queenie said he reminded him of someone...
BUT these were all things i was looking forward to having the pleasure of finding out for myself. Now i feel like its not worth finishing the book as you gave away the whole thing with that one line!!
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jazztalking
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Posted: Wednesday March 16th, 2005 18:54 |
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| seriously though I thought queenie - the white woman- was spot on, and the episode with michael comforting the missionary in the church was sly sly sly!!
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Miz Efabulous
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Posted: Tuesday March 22nd, 2005 14:12 |
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i've recently read Shopaholic and Sister but have forgotten who it was by!!! it was great. So was the genre.
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Miz Efabulous
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Posted: Tuesday March 22nd, 2005 14:20 |
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ive never heard of the book. please tell me what the title and author is so i could buy it! ill apreciate it.
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MissNyomie
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Posted: Tuesday March 22nd, 2005 14:32 |
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Author - Andrea Levy
Title- Small Island
Buy it onlie at Amazon for the discount.
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myrtle
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Posted: Wednesday August 24th, 2005 10:00 |
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Sorry..But Hortense is not an admirable character. She spends half of the book lusting after her light skinned wutless adopted brother and the other half looking down her nose at Gilbert - who is the real heart of the book. The novel however is absolutely hilarious. I have a sneaky feeling that Andrea Levy - who is a jewish Jamaican - based Hortense on her own mother who she admitted was quite racist to fellow black Jamiacans.
I agree with what has been said about Hortenses behaviour here, but I thought it reflected the fact that the author seems to have based the characters on countless interviews and really good research into pre and post war attitudes in both Jamaica (to other Jamaicans, and also wildly innacurate beliefs as to how they would be recieved in England) and in England from the base level and overt racism demonstrated time and time again, in society generally and particularly in the forces, to the (sort of, as she is clearly but more subtly racist) 'sympathetic' white woman Queenie;
Hortense is being "sent up" terribly in the novel..she thinks that she can speak excellent English but white English people can't understand a word she says.
My impression is that Hortense was taught (and spoke) 'excellent' English in Jamaica, and that most of the English people she comes into contact with not only have far less education than her, but that it is mainly her accent that bamboozles them. I thought it was the Brits who were being 'sent up'.
Andrea Levy did a pretty good job of both the white english woman (Queenie) and I suspect also the Jamaican guy (Gilbert). Better than many I have read trying to go beyond their own 'voice'.
It's the best book I have read this summer.
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efenjee
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Posted: Wednesday August 24th, 2005 10:31 |
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| This book was okay, quite funny in places and quite a good read overall, but it would come nowhere near my top 50 books and the parts about Queenie's hubby's time in the army overseas were mostly BORING, BORING, BORING. I mean who gave a fukk about his barracks burning down?? I certainly didn't. Too much time was spent on that when you just wanted to know what Queenie, Hortense and Gilbert were up to.
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jazztalking
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Posted: Friday August 26th, 2005 17:12 |
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| Myrtle..I dont agree with you about who is being sent up...I feel that Hortense is because Andrea Levy makes her speak English phonetically so that we can see the joke. For example, she would make Hortense say "hot" when she should say "heart." "My hot"...etc etc
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myrtle
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Posted: Saturday August 27th, 2005 12:36 |
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Fair enough, jazztalking.
I've lent the book out now, but the things I was thinking of were when Hortense uses very formal language like "is it possible for you to perchance tell me where I might obtain a bla bla bla" (not a quote but you get my drift?).
It's easily the kind of book I could read again in a year or so (it's so good) and when I do i'll be able to reassess that aspect in light of your insights.
I'd forgotten all about Queenies husband, I agree with Efenjee that section is weak.
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Sooofresh
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Posted: Sunday August 28th, 2005 20:38 |
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i rate the book 8 out of ten
it gave a a true prespective of many Carrabiens, who worshipped the queen, and tried their best to be british that when they arrived to their *motherland* the same british they worshipped , have kicked them in the face.
brilliant........
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Vixxen1985
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Posted: Thursday January 11th, 2007 11:26 |
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| Has anybody read Never Far From Nowhere and Every light in the house burning, also by Andrea Levy
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Judge J
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Posted: Thursday January 11th, 2007 20:48 |
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| I will have to start reading this book soon. I got a copy at my little brothers Christmas Bazar for £1.50
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