Andrea Levy's Books

I just completed my third Andrea Levy book and recommend them all highly for anyone who is thinking of Moving Back to Jamaica.

If I had the gift of beautiful prose I would write a book review, but ... seeing as I do not, here is a great book review of the last one I read.

She writes with an insight into Jamaica and the experience of migrating that is unique, and although she writes about the British experience, there is a great deal to learn from any Jamaican who has left home to live in another country.

Incidentally, this month's Jamaica Journal also has a short story she wrote.

I also recently read a book called Ugly by Constance Briscoe, who is now a judge.

From reading these books on the English experience, I started to detect a certain "dead-end" kind of experience that Jamaican immigrants experience in England that I do not recognize in the U.S. Maybe because the U.S. is "a land of immigrants and opportunity," the doors to something better always seem to be open.

From these books I have read (which together comprise a short list, unfortunately) it seems that the British experience has more to do with accommodating oneself to something foreign, that is "not about to change for the likes of you."

The racism that exists in Britain also seems to take a different form than that of the U.S. It appears more personal, and less open to change, and overtly intended to exclude.

In today's American society, the worst thing that you can call someone is a racist.

I don't sense that Britain is anywhere near that kind of sensitivity.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has direct some experience, either to support or refute my little evidence.