Book Reviews

Scribble Diversity Reads

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint Aaina Jassel

   3/5

This was a wonderful Greek re-telling of Ariadne’s trials and tribulations. At fi rst I thought it would be all about the minotaur however this book explores Ariadne’s entire life pre-Theseus and after Theseus. Saint explores this by showing us how Ariadne prospered after being used and abused by Theseus who left her to die on an island. Ariadne’s story is beautiful and riveting – her tale of self-discovery and adventure. Not only this but Saint explores her sister Phaedra and her own stories which touch on marriage and power. These two sisters show great courage and there are many lessons that we can learn from their stories.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Ryhs Aaina Jassel

    4/5

This might have been one of the most interesting books I think I have read so far! This tells the story of Bertha Mason from ‘Jane Eyre’ – the crazy woman in the attic – and she how ended up in England. I loved reading Jane Eyre and immediately fell in love with Mr Rochester so seeing how he was portrayed in this retelling was intriguing. Here Bertha – Antionette – is a white Creole heiress who seems to be out of place everywhere; abandoned by her mother and ignored by her ‘husband’. Rochester himself goes unnamed throughout, showing him as a dominating colonial fi gure with unnamed power. This novel was extremely thought-provoking and I highly recommend to all!

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid Libby Driscoll

     5/5

‘Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you, do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America.’ A meta piece of fi ction that immediately captured my attention, ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ follows Changez Khan, a middle-class Pakistani from Lahore as he chases the American dream with a massive change in his outlook and his future when he sees the news footage of the twin towers falling.

It has a unique, elegant style and an intriguing perspective that can completely reshape your thoughts on terrorism, the outsider experience and the American dream. It holds a whole cast of ghosts and ideas behind its engaging and somewhat experimental narration that leave you reeling after you fi nish the short novel. It deliberately confronts ‘you’, the implied Western reader and implicates you in the plot to challenge you, leaving you to spend much more time considering it after its ambiguous and discomforting ending than you do actually reading the book. And it’s worth every second of it.

Brit(ish): On Face, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch Libby Driscoll

   3.5/5

‘In Britain, we are taught not to see race. We are told that race does not matter. We have convinced ourselves that if we can contort ourselves into a form of blindness, then issues of identity will quietly disappear… we want to be post-racial, without having ever admitted how racial a society we have been.’

Afua Hirsch (an old GDST girl!) writes this intriguing contribution to the study of British racism and our culture’s overwhelming desire to “look the other way” from anything overly shocking or divisive. With equal emphasis on her personal experience as a British person of Ghanian descent and of Britain’s history regarding race, she beautifully illustrates many (especially mixed-race) people’s struggles with identity in Britain today. There are a few points at which I feel that there is repetition, or I would prefer a deeper analysis, or a point appears a bit o colour, but overall it is written as an accessible introduction to both the experience of a modern woman of colour and Britain’s racial history.