The Emigrants

by George Lamming

Book Overview

The Emigrants is an elaborately conceived novel, dense with dynamic characters and evocative details. First published in 1954, it focuses initially on the emigrant journey, then on the settling-in process. The journey by sea and subsequent attempts at resettlement provide the fictional framework for Lamming's exploration of the alienation and displacement caused by colonialism.

This is the epic journey of a group of West Indians who...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472064703
• ISBN13: 9780472064700
• Release Date: May 1994
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Immigration and Loss of Identity

In Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe narrates the disruptive effect European colonisation has on old tribal ways of life. In George Lamming's The Emigrants (1954)the movement is the other way round: a group of West Indians immigrates to London in search of a better future. During the voyage on the ship, told as a kind of rite of passage from their old to the new world, they share past experiences, dreams, hopes and ambitions. The voyage however doesn't prepare them for the life of outcasts that awaits them in London, and the subsequent loss of identity. The form of the narrative adjusts itself to its theme: its continuous flow, which narrates the voyage, breaks up into several trails following the individual destinies that lose themselves in the smoke of London. Though not as great as In The Castle of my Skin, which I think Mr. Lamming's greatest novel, it is an intense book about immigration, cultural chock and loss of identity.