Small Island by Andrea Levy

I finished reading Small Island last night, late. Then when I woke up this morning, I fiddled around on the computer a little then watched the PBS Masterpiece Classic show Small Island. I love being able to do that!

The book was exceptional, telling the tale of four young people during and after World War II. Hortense and Gilbert Joseph are from Jamaica and come to England after the war to begin new, better lives. Gilbert met Queenie during the war and since her husband, Bernard does not return home after serving in the RAF during the war, she lets rooms. Gilbert and Hortense rent a room and since I don't want to giveaway more of the story, I'll stop with the storyline.

Small Island won the British Orange Prize in 2004, and rightfully so. This novel is well written and tells a story, though fiction, of a snippet of four main characters' lives during the war, bringing that period to life. Oh, the Masterpiece Classic show was very good too. It followed the book closely but they added a small ending that wasn't in the book reflecting what present day was like thanks to the main characters.

Book Read: Small Island

Author:  Andrea Levy

ISBN:  0-312-42467-1

Don't listen to me. What do I know? Unless I do know...

Well, Barbara Kingsolver won the Orange Prize for The Lacuna. You know, the book that just didn't flip my switch. But what do I know? Not much evidently!

I did start reading The Feast of Love though, which I do love! I'd read one other of Charles Baxter's books, First Light, many years ago, and it was so original in the format and well written to boot. I have had The Feast of Love sitting on my nightstand for a long time, have meant to read, have tried to read it, but I did it bassackwards:  I watched the movie first, which I totally love, instead of reading the book first.

And so, I got a wild hair the other night and looked up Mr. Baxter on the internet, which I usually do after I read a book but I felt like this was a special circumstance since I've seen the movie (many times) and know what's going to happen. So, as I was tooling around his Web site, I saw the "email the author" button and I did! And he emailed me back! And we've exchanged a couple of emails, while I'm reading his book. How cool is that? I'll tell you how cool. For a word nerd, wanna be author, it's the best.