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Hearts And Minds (2009)

by Amanda Craig(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0316724831 (ISBN13: 9780316724838)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Little, Brown Book Group

review 1: This is a contemporary novel about immigrants in London and they tend to be illegal immigrants too. As is the case with most illegal immigrants they do not particularly want to be immigrants. They would have preferred to have remained where they were, but they immigrate to survive. Even so, though, the very young women from eastern Europe might have been better off if they had stayed in eastern Europe. That is, there is a focus on young teenagers who thought they were signing up for jobs as waitresses or even models and found themselves forced into prostitution. They are pretty much slaves. They do not even get to keep the money that is paid for their services. That goes to their ostensible employers, actually owners. I am not sure about the credibility of the character na... moremed Job. He is an immigrant from Zimbabwe and one day he decides to spend some of the money he makes as a minicab operator by buying the services of a brothel. Once he is there, though, he immediately assesses the situation and the plight of the teenage women who work there and he declines the services he has already paid for and, instead, he vows to a Ukrainian sex slave to help her. He eventually succeeds in helping her too. Somehow I just have difficulty in suspending my disbelief for that. The novel as a whole is entertaining enough, though, and if you keep in mind that it is based on the reality of the international sex trade it is even a bit poignant.
review 2: A little torn between 4 and 5 stars here but I will give it 5 as it was so absorbing, with lots of fascinating characters, and covered such range. A portrait of modern London, a look at the immigrant experience from a number of perspectives, and an insight at some serious social/political issues. Some of it is very bleak - sex trafficking and human rights abuses - which did not always seem to sit comfortably with the lighter sections of satire about the British media, but actually this balance between the serious and the less so was what made it readable and human, along with a plot which raced along. Some issues were just touched on, like the state of the NHS in the south east, and at times it was a bit worthy - the author sometimes gave us a bit of political polemic where she should just have allowed her story to do its work. The apparent coincidences could have been annoying but in fact I think they served to show how interconnected people can be, and how their lives touch one another's, even if they don't realise it. One or two of the characters risked being stereotypes, and I was not too impressed by the rather rushed and cliched Islamic fundamentalist strand, but overall she does avoid stereotypes while showing us the reflexively judgemental attitudes that can be so damaging. Will definitely read some more from this writer. less

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