| Bibliograhpy
There are a number of books that may interest you. A lot
of these books have been read by people world wide and they
have given their overall opinion about them. Enjoy! We'd be
happy to read your comments about similiar books you've read.
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Title: 2nd Class Citizen
Author: Buchi Emetcheta
Summary - Adah, a women from the Ibo tribe, moves to England to live with her Nigerian student husband. She soon discovers that life for a young Nigerian women living in London in the 1960s is grim. Rejected by British society and thwarted by her husband, who expects her to be subservient to him, she is forced to face up a life as a second-class citizen.
Comments - On finishing this book I was once again, a little overwhelmed and disappointed. The reader is taken through such utter human cruelty, betrayal and brutality at a break- neck speed, only to be dumped outside a chicken shop. There to be re-united with an old friend, male, who takes Adah back to her husband! What now?! The book once again shows a culture steeped in some ugly traditions, where woman is a second class citizen, simply by being born. Pages 16 – 17 provide a cross-reference to Hyacinth’s story. The drive, force and determination to endure the extreme agony and humiliation of being caned for one’s beliefs. The ultimate belief being that education and the ‘dream’ are the keys to a better life. In conclusion, both books contain some very disturbing incidences of sexual, physical and verbal abuse. They both highlight the appalling face of discrimination, which can come from, not only ‘outside’ in society, but also from ‘inside’ one’s own family structure.
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Title: The Unbelonging
Author: Joan Riley
Summary - Summoned to Britain by a father she has never known, eleven-year-old Hyacinth finds that she has exchanged the warmth and exuberance of the backstreets of Kingston, Jamaica, for the gloom of British inner-city life, finding herself in a land of strangers with hers the only black face in a sea of white. But Hyacinth is not a victim as, through academic achievement and dreams of her homeland, she survives and triumphs against the hostility of her classmates and threatened violence at home from her father, sustained forever by the sure knowledge that her dreams hold the truth.
Comments - The initial response after reading this book was, that this is a very powerful, evocative, maddening, frustrating and extremely sad book. The first part of the book is a very good depiction of the raw, ugly, painful, terrifying side of displacement, which is then followed, by the reunion with biological parents. The second part spotlights the ‘ignorance’ which can come fully clothed or masked, under the guise of education: for example, Hyacinth’s experience at college/university. Finally, one is aware of Hyacinth’s total naïveté throughout the book. This appeared to be driven or controlled by fear and stubbornness, ‘being blind to reality’, thus leading to the sickeningly rude awakening on her return to J.A., that “back home” no longer exists. There the reality and nightmare actually seem to merge – begging the question, ‘is this just another of her dreams/nightmares or is this real’?
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