Anita and Me
Anita and Me is the first novel by the writer Meera Syal, which appeared in 1996 at the Flamingo. The novel won the Betty Trask in 1996 Award and was made into a film in 2002. A German translation is so far not available.
In the years 2004 and 2005, the novel about the tasks of the British examination General Certificate of Secondary Education ( GCSE ) was.
Content
Meena Kumar, who was born in England, daughter of Indian immigrants, reported in the novel, looking back on her childhood in Tollington, a ( fictional) former mining village near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands of England, and her friendship with the few years older Anita.
The plot, which includes the year 1972, a period of about two years, set on the day when the Meena admired for a long time Anita Meena responds for the first time, and ending on the day on which Meena family from Tollington go away, and so that each contact Anita breaks. The development of friendship between Meena and Anita thus forms a common thread that runs through the novel's plot and marked an important stage.
The actual main themes of the novel are, however, in addition to the relationship between the girls, on the one hand the learning process that goes through Meena, and on the other hand the life of Indian immigrants in England during the 1970s. Meena, a very lively and imaginative girl ( that it's not exactly take well to the truth ), learns over time much about supposed and real friendships, about growing up and about their own identity.
By the way, the reader gains insight into the life of an Indian family. Meena, who knows as border crosser between cultures both the rituals of their own family as well as that of the white neighbors has a keen eye for the differences and misunderstandings that are caused by them. Some of the misconceptions are harmless and offer an occasion for comedy, some have Meenas observations but also strong political content - as if turned under her eyes a part of the village youth in skinheads and call before your eyes, an alien free country.