Similarly to her previous novels,
Every Light in the House Burnin’and
Never Far From Nowhere,
Fruit of the Lemon(1999), Andrea Levy’s third novel, has at its centre the theme of identity. W.E.B. Du Bois, in his
The Souls of Black Folk(1903), and Paul Gilroy, in
The Black Atlantic(1993), have called the dilemma of reconciling two identities double consciousness. In the essay “This Is My England” (
Guardian, 2000), Levy herself voices her attitude to double consciousness and identity: “Identity! Sometimes it makes my head hurt – sometimes my heart. So what am I? Where do I fit into Britain?” She explores this topic in the novel through the eyes of the second generation of post-war Caribbean immigrants in the United Kingdom. The state of being split between two cultures is…
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Citation: Flajsarova, Pavlina. "Fruit of the Lemon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=26846, accessed 31 October 2024.]
