Fruit of the Lemon [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Andrea Levy writes with wonderful immediacy and liveliness in this, her third novel about the experience of being black in Britain. It's the late 70's and Faith Jackson's in a hurry - to loosen the hold of her loving but strict parents, to "go her own sweet way". At her new job as a dresser at Television Centre Faith negotiates the trip-wires of being black in often slyly witty, seemingly throwaway asides. But her parents' announcement that they might go home to Jamaica and a vicious racist National Front attack on a local bookshop, propels Faith into crisis.

Urged by her parents--"Child, everyone should know where they come from"--she goes to Kingston to stay with garrulous Auntie Coral. For Faith, it was her aunt's and cousin's rich and lively sequence of conversational storytelling's that 'wrapped me in a family history and swaddled me tight in its stories' - then released her into a new sense of self.

Fruit of the Lemon is an affectionate and absorbing narrative that makes its points about racism's effacements and brutalities with unforced but striking resonance. It offers us a voice of pleasurable yet gritty substance and significance: millennial Britain needs more like this. --Ruth Petrie -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

A Londoner with Jamaican roots, Levy writes astringently funny and wryly merciful novels about family contretemps, unthinking racism, and the ripple effect of colonialism. The winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Orange Prize for Small Island (2005), Levy presents another delectable Jamaican British screwball comedy with edge. After leaving her Jamaican parent's spic-and-span home for a messy communal life with three white roommates, and landing a job in a television station's costume department, Faith is nearly always the only person of color in sight. As her parents think about returning to Jamaica, a place Faith has never been curious about, Levy, a master at hilarious, rapid-fire dialogue, orchestrates one daft yet wrenching situation after another in which Faith is confronted by casual yet corrosive racist remarks. Finally, overwhelmed by hypocrisy, Faith heads to Jamaica to stay with her aunt Coral, and there discovers where she comes from and who she really is. Levy has chosen her title shrewdly: like the lemon, her loaded satire is bright and alluring, but its bite is sharp. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

Adult/High School—This book is divided into two major sections. First, readers learn about the protagonist, Faith, and her family's life in England, and that her parents had emigrated from Jamaica on a banana boat, arriving at West India Dock on Guy Fawkes Night and really only knowing England from what they'd learned in school. Life is not exactly as they'd planned it, but over time Wade and Mildred adjust to their new home, get jobs, buy a house, and start a family. They are proud of their children, especially Faith's work in the costume department at BBC, but Faith, who is a credible but sheltered young adult, isn't quite so pleased, as she becomes aware of the hidden and public racism all around her. She decides to visit Jamaica, and the book moves into its second section. Faith meets the family she has known only through letters, photos, and the stories her parents have shared with her. Listening to her Aunt Coral's tales provides her with insight into her parents' lives that she never could have imagined. She makes connections with the people and places of their youth and returns to England with a different perception of her mum, her dad, and herself. None of Faith's Jamaican relationships seems to be deep, but readers sense that maturity is just around the corner, perhaps once she reconnects with her family in Britain.—Joanne Ligamari, Rio Linda School District, Sacramento, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

'Funny and moving... Levy is an ironic comedian whose subtle, intelligent novel steers well clear of whimsy' -- Guardian 'Unflinchingly unsentimental, her writing is leavened with humour and warmth...entertaining and revelatory' -- TLS 'Reinforces Levy's reputation as an astute observer of modern British life' -- Financial Times 'Always refreshingly undogmatic...[readers] will recognise the truthfulness of the world which Andrea Levy describes' -- Sunday Telegraph 'Levy has a gift for voices...a thoughtful comment on racism and the importance of knowing where you are from' -- The Sunday Times 'Bright and inventive' -- Independent

A unique novel full of humour, wit and passion from Andrea Levy, critically acclaimed author of the Orange Prize winning SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG. Faith Jackson fixes herself up with a great job in TV and the perfect flatshare. But neither is that perfect - and nor are her relations with her overbearing, though always loving family. Furious and perplexed when her parents announce their intention to retire back home to Jamaica, Faith makes her own journey there, where she is immediately welcomed by her Aunt Coral, keeper of a rich cargo of family history. Through the weave of her aunt's storytelling a cast of characters unfolds stretching back to Cuba and Panama, Harlem and Scotland, a story that passes through London and sweeps through continents.

Faith Jackson fixes herself up with a great job in TV and the perfect flatshare. But neither is that perfect - and nor are her relations with her overbearing, though always loving family. Furious and perplexed when her parents announce their intention to retire back home to Jamaica, Faith makes her own journey there, where she is immediately welcomed by her Aunt Coral, keeper of a rich cargo of family history. Through the weave of her aunt's storytelling a cast of characters unfolds stretching back to Cuba and Panama, Harlem and Scotland, a story that passes through London and sweeps through continents.

Andrea Levy wurde 1956 als Kind jamaikanischer Einwanderer in London geboren, wo sie heute noch lebt.