Fruit of the Lemon: Andrea Levy

Image Credit: Fantasticfiction

Why is it that a visit to the dentist scares most people? Even though I just had to get my teeth cleaned I was nervous. I have had a mortal fear of going to a dentist since I was a child and it still gives me nightmares. Apparently my fear has a name – dentophobia.

But I sat through my session and came running back home to finish the last few pages of Andrea Levy’s absolutely delightful novel “Fruit of The Lemon.” I finished it in record time because I just could not put it down. Levy tells the story of Faith Jackson, a black girl living in a London that is trying to come to terms with its racial prejudices. Faith tries to have a life of her own, living separate from her overly protective parents and setting herself up with a good job. But when she goes on a journey to Jamaica, her homeland, it turns out to be a journey of self-discovery.

Faith’s story was beautiful and complex in a number of ways. Levy effectively shows the important role that the color of skin plays in a society, among not just foreigners but among blacks themselves. Faith desperately tries to blend in with the “whites” and tries to create an identity of her own rather than fall back on her Jamaican immigrant heritage. She also wants to break away from her cosseting and traditional parents whose wish is to see her married to a ‘nice boy.’

Everything changes when her parents push Faith to go for a holiday to Jamaica because, “everyone should know where they come from.” Faith meets her aunts, cousins and other family and gets to know their stories. As days pass by, a lot of her beliefs about her people and the place begin to crumble. When she first reaches her aunt’s house she is surprised. “I don’t know what I was expecting but somewhere in my mind was an image of a mud hut with a pointy stick roof and dirt floors.” She learns a few family secrets, their customs and of adventurous grandmothers. When its time for her to return to England, she realizes that her people had, “wrapped me in a family history and swaddled me tight in its stories. And I was taking back that family to England.”

Levy’s beautiful writing is like a delicious softness that you sink into. It’s not easy to maintain the tempo in such a book since it doesn’t have mystery or horror to egg its readers on. But Levy does it wonderfully well, filling the book with humor and quaint Jamaican mannerisms and maintaining an even and interesting tone throughout that urged me to turn the page fast.

Fruit of the Lemon also points out the importance of oral tradition. Faith learns of her family roots through stories richly told in Jamaican English by her aunts and cousin Vincent. Through these stories Faith discovers a time when the color of your skin mattered more than anything else. As her old beliefs erode and new ones form Faith realizes that the independence that she craved can be had in Jamaica, where she, “could be anything.” Nobody would care because she was one of them.

I agree with reader lizzysiddal that the book ends on an abrupt and too perfect note. And I also think that the two weeks that Faith stays in Jamaica is perhaps too short a time to crack up long-held beliefs. But these are small flaws, which Levy’s writing and lyrical prose overcome.

Verdict: Beautiful writing and some wonderful storytelling

Rating: 4/5

Interesting words learnt: Conker, Patois, Quadroon, Octoroon