Andrea Levy’s second novel,
Never Far from Nowhere(1996) retakes the main themes already present in her debut novel,
Every Light in the House Burnin’(1994): racial prejudice, discrimination, the quest for identity, marginalization, and, last but not least, double consciousness. The setting of
Never Far from Nowherebrings the reader to London, to a family of Jamaican immigrants in the 1960s. The story is narrated alternately by the sisters Vivien and Olive Charles, thus the author providing two different views on the dilemmas the individual members of the family have to face.
The Charles family exemplifies perfectly what W.E.B. DuBois called double consciousness. In his view, double consciousness “is a peculiar sensation, . . ., this sense of always looking at one’s self through
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Citation: Flajsarova, Pavlina. "Never Far from Nowhere". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=26845, accessed 21 November 2024.]
