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Anita and Me by: Meera Syal List Price: £7.99 City Travel Guides Price: £5.99 You Save: £2.00 (25%)Prices subject to change. |
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9780006548768 ISBN: 0006548768 Label: Flamingo Manufacturer: Flamingo Number Of Pages: 336 Publication Date: April 07, 1997 Publisher: Flamingo Studio: Flamingo Sales Rank: 27208 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Synopsis: The story of nine-year-old Meena, the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the Midlands' mining village of Tollington. The novel provides a vision of British childhood in the 1960s, a childhood caught between two cultures, each on the brink of enormous change. Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - An excellent portrayal of a second generation AsianAnita and Me is a brilliant debut novel by Meera Syal. The novel journeys during the days of 1960's Britain set in small town in the midlands. The story is narrated by Meena a born and bred second generation Asian who experienced life of what life is like living in a Punjabi family household and within the English community. The narrative approach is superb and filled with interesting details about the Indian way of life and how it conflicts with Western values. The author being herself a second generation, has really added her own experience and knowledge to deliver a superb piece of storytelling. The main focal point is about divided loyalty. In the context of the novel, Meena wants indulge in habits such as eating fish and chips ... Read More: Rating: - Stunning and laugh out loud!I read this at fifteen and was totally stunned- I love how the 10 year old narrator sees her world and has a unique take on seemingly mundane events of her life! It also made me laugh out loud- Syal in her writing, knows how to have a laugh. In reference to the reviewer who taught this in his class- if any book is taught in a classroom people are inevitably going to find fault with it- this shouldn't detract from how worthwhile this book is. The story as a whole works very well and rather than the main character seeming being too old for her age- what struck me is how the author paints such an accurate picture of a ten year old- who sees the world without the moral scruples of an adult- she falls prey to the normal temptations children succomb to ... Read More: Rating:  - Grown up and stuffed upWell, I DID teach this novel at school. It has many good points, particularly the sense of exoticism next to familiarity and the relationship between the girls, but as it went on, the kids and I became more and more aware of its weaknesses. The most obvious is that Meena is far too knowing for her age, and too grown up altogether. This becomes all too obvious towards the end, when Sam Lowther gets the hots for her and she can't be more than eleven. It seems to be padded out, with some scenes duplicated - Sam raising hell at the Village Fete and at the demolition is the most obvious. It isn't that well-written - you can't 'stab' someone with a butcher's cleaver, any more than you can 'hiss' something that doesn't contain an s- sound. Read More: Rating:  - Couldn't get past page 42!!!I picked up this book through Book Crossers and was excited to read it because of the movie and the fact that I live in the UK. But I honestly had to grind my teeth through the first 42 pages and ultimately decided that life is too short to read something so painfully dull. There is no actual action in this book...it's all adjectives and the flowery language overpowers the story, if there is an actual story. Boring, boring, boring!!!! Rating: - poignant and laugh out loud funnyThis is a fantastic book which captures the spirit of childhood in a way i've never encountered before. i saw the film and didn't like it but after reading life isn't all haha heehee i decided to give it a go. I think it surpasses life... which itself was a sparkling, witty, intelligent and poignant book. Meena is a fantastic character who just springs to life from the page and reminds me of my tomboy self at her age. this book is everything in the right measure; witty, serious and endlessly touching. |
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