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Andrea Levy: Small Island

A great book

I finished this book late Sunday evening and have been thinking of ways I could add to the discussion - or get one started. I've also been concerned about spoilers and will try not to include any here.

The four characters were a great study in contrasts and so real. I think I liked Gilbert the best. He was so honest and patient about everything. He recognized the racial problems of the period, but never let them influence his own self-image. I'll admit I got annoyed with Hortense a couple of times - particularly her insensitivity to her friend, Celia. (And I can't go too much further on Hortense and Celia without getting into a possible spoiler.) I actually liked Bernard a couple of times when he was narrating - but overall found him pretty despicable. I'm not sure where to begin on Queenie, except that I liked her. With the exception of Bernard, they are all people I would not mind knowing - and feel like I did know them while reading the book.
 
wenzdaze said:
I've also been concerned about spoilers and will try not to include any here.
Click to expand...
If you wish to include spoilers, then all you have to do is include spoiler tags over the offending parts of your post. To use them use this coding: [spoiler*]Your spoiler goes here[*/spoiler] , but leave out the *'s. It should then look like this:
Your spoiler goes here
. Just click and drag your mouse over the blackened area to read.
 
Thanks MonkeyCatcher

Okay, I'm going to try this first.

Here's the spoiler
.

And I can see by my preview message that I've got it.

Thank-you! How liberating!
 
Hortense and Celia

Long spoiler ahead.

Celia was a wonderful character. A great friend to Hortense, and a well rounded caring individual, so I had trouble with Hortense when she boldly told Gilbert about Celia's mother, indicating that this would make it difficult for her to move to England. I don't think Hortense was as enthalled with Gilbert as her friend was, but she saw him as a way to get to England, so it was pretty amusing when England did not turn out to be everything she thought it was. While she was adjusting to a new country I had conflicting feelings for her. Sympathy for her difficulties - and thinking she got just what she deserved. In the end the marriage between Gilbert and Hortense seemed to be on solid ground - but Celia certainly would have made the initial adjustment easier.
 
wenzdaze said:
Long spoiler ahead.

Celia was a wonderful character. A great friend to Hortense, and a well rounded caring individual, so I had trouble with Hortense when she boldly told Gilbert about Celia's mother, indicating that this would make it difficult for her to move to England. I don't think Hortense was as enthalled with Gilbert as her friend was, but she saw him as a way to get to England, so it was pretty amusing when England did not turn out to be everything she thought it was. While she was adjusting to a new country I had conflicting feelings for her. Sympathy for her difficulties - and thinking she got just what she deserved. In the end the marriage between Gilbert and Hortense seemed to be on solid ground - but Celia certainly would have made the initial adjustment easier.
Click to expand...

I never actually thought of this incident from the viewpoint that Hortense
told Gilbert about Celia's mother on purpose. I can see now that that could possibly have been the case, but at the time I read into it as Hortense accidently upsetting Celia, as she didn't know that Celia didn't want him to know. I did notice the harsh way that Hortense informed Gilbert - especially the statement that "she can't go to England because, frankly, she's quite insane", or something of that nature - but again, I thought that was just Hortense. This certainly throws a spin on the way that I view Hortense. It also explains how she could marry her best friend's boy, as she obviously is not bothered by stepping on people to fulfill her dreams.
 
Celia

I just went back and reread the passage where Hortense
revealed Celia's secret. I was so upset with Hortense I actually forgot that Celia was so mad she socked Hortense, indicating that Celia, although somewhat justified, was not perfect either.
.

(You might well ask how a person could forget a thing like that so soon after finishing the book - forgive me, I'm old.)
 
Shade
:D I have to laugh, but so did I!! I don't care one bit about spoilers, in fact in this type of novel, I welcome them. It doesn't take away one bit of enjoyment for me.

Y'all spoke of Celia's secret. I knew what Hortense was doing from the beginning, and didn't make me like her one little bit, and I had liked her up to that point.

How do you get those black cover ups? :confused: And do y'all really want to keep using them???
All they do is irritate me.
 
pontalba said:
How do you get those black cover ups? :confused:
Click to expand...
I explained about 7 posts up how to do them, so you could just check it out there :)

And do y'all really want to keep using them??? All they do is irritate me.
Click to expand...
The thing is that some people don't like spoilers, so to be courteous them I think I will still use them. Sorry :eek:
 
MonkeyCatcher said:
The thing is that some people don't like spoilers, so to be courteous them I think I will still use them. Sorry :eek:
Click to expand...

I hate having stories spoilt, so I really appreciate it when people use blackouts.
 
Ah, well, such is life. I certainly don't want anyone to enjoy it less because of something I've said!
:)
 
Spoilers

How funny all of this is turning out to be! :) We're talking about spoilers more than we are the book.

And in that vein - I kind of agree that the blackouts are pretty unsightly - but as a newcomer I'm willing to go along with whatever is conventional for the book discussions. I did notice that the book of the month link has a warning that the thread might contain spoilers - so maybe we aren't supposed to be concerned with them.
 
wenzdaze said:
I did notice that the book of the month link has a warning that the thread might contain spoilers - so maybe we aren't supposed to be concerned with them.
Click to expand...
But there are people who go into these discussions to see the comments on the book in general to see weither or not it is worth reading. The way I see it is if we can use the spoiler tags then why not? It means that more people will be able to join in the discussion because there is no need to be worried that the book will be spoilt for them. I don't see why the look of the thread should take the spot of most important, all I'm concerned with is the conversation. As I said, I will continue to use spoiler tags, but I suppose with the warning it is up to you. I'm just using the tags so that as many people can join the discussion as possible.
 
MonkeyCatcher said:
But there are people who go into these discussions to see the comments on the book in general to see weither or not it is worth reading.
Click to expand...

Yus, this is what I do, so I for one appreciate it when other people use spoiler tags. I usually just want to see the general jist of what people think, before deciding to pick a book up (when it's one I'm not sure about).
 
Hi Pontalba!

I had to play with this for awhile before I figured it out. Monkeycatcher put the *'s in so that the sample spoiler wouldn't turn into another spoiler. So leave the *s out of the actual spoiler. Also put a backslash before the second spoiler. (Now I'm not sure - it's either a slash or backslash - I can't see the original post on my screen right now, and my memory is faulty.) I previewed my message first and had to try it a few times before I got it right.

p.s. - I love Jack Benny!
 
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