Hand Me Down World, by Lloyd Jones

http://carolesbooks.blogspot.com/2010/11/book-review-hand-me-down-world-by-lloyd.html ***

The first part of the story is narrated by various people who encountered a woman and helped her in her quest to travel to Berlin to find her young son. I thought this was intriguing and I really liked how they all helped her in different ways, some good, some not so good, from a truck driver, snail shell collector to a chess player and other interesting characters.

As the story goes on we gradually learn a little more about this woman from Africa, until she herself narrates the last part and we see that she sees most of the people and the situations in a different way.

For me, the story started well but slowly I got bored, it just didn't hold my attention enough, I didn't really care too much about Ines, the woman, or the characters she meets about half way through. I did like the easy writing style which contained mainly short sentences and paragraphs.

I read and enjoyed Mister Pip which was Lloyd Jones last book so this was quite a disappointment to me.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8666585-hand-me-down-world ***

This is an interesting story about a woman who loses her child and then goes through hell to try and get him back. Sad in parts, inspiring in others it gives insight into life as an illegal immigrant and a mother.

I thought the main character 'Ines' was slightly difficult to empathise with at times. as she seemed to be quite unemotional in very stressful and often horrible situations. Although some of the scenes, such as when she first meets her son after 3 years of searching are quite heart wrenching.

This is definitely not a Hollywood film style story. It presents a very 'real life' view of what coming to Europe must be it must be like for people like Ines including the good parts such as the kindness of strangers towards 'Ines' but also the bad parts such as the drowning of many of the African immigrants when they try and reach Europe.

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

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"This is a book about one woman’s journey, physical and emotional, from Africa to Europe in search of a child, but it’s just as much about the individual journeys of all the people she meets, who help or hinder her along the way. It’s a book about home, and what the concept means.

She calls herself Ines, and she’s not the kind of person any of us has met in real life or on the pages of fiction before now. She’s someone who wouldn’t draw any attention, who you might look right through. Sometimes you want to help her, other times you want her to take a different path to the one she’s decided on, but as you find out more about her, you realise you know less than when you started. Her world is so different from ours that you could say that she’s almost from a different planet.

The novel is very realistic in its portrayal of Ines and all the people around her - in life we don’t instantly find out everything on meeting a new person and we don’t here. We see each of them briefly as Ines encounters them and have to make up our minds about them using the little information we have to go on. Should we (and Ines) trust them or not?

The book has several narrators, each with their own idiosyncrasies, and though Ines is one of them we hear about her long before we hear from her, so we see her through other eyes first. Perhaps we’d think the same some of the narrators if we were to meet her.

Lloyd Jones draws you in right from the start, and it’s a hard book to put down - I found myself reading long into the night, trying to find out more about Ines and what led her to Europe. I tried to read the last few pages slowly, to make the pleasure last, but at the same time desperate to get to the end to get some closure to the story. I felt bereft when I finished, like the feeling you get when a much-loved visitor has gone home.

The style is accessible and some of the descriptive passages are quirky and beautiful. The characters are real, with real human positives and failings, so that you feel you know people like them.

I haven’t read any of Lloyd Jones’s other books, but I look forward to reading more of his work. If it’s even nearly as good as “Hand Me Down World” then I’m in for a treat."

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

Also posted at:
http://www.bookrabbit.com/catalogue/reviews/reviewid/3653

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8666582-hand-me-down-world

"This is the story of a women know to the reader as Ines. Ines makes a long, hard, and often dangerous journey from Africa to Europe in search of a child.

‘Hand Me Down World’ is actually one story, told twice. The first half of the book is narrated by the people who Ines meets during her journey. From the truck driver who gives her a lift to the blind man who used her as his eyes. Ines is ‘handed down’ from person to person - slowly making her way to her destination, with the determination that only a mother separated from her child can have. Ines is used by people, but she is also a user, she will stop at nothing to reach her goal.

In the second half of the book, the exact same story is told again, this time narrated by Ines herself. It is clear that there are some unreliable narrators in this book as the stories vary so much. Each narrator portrays themselves as wholesome and good, only interested in Ines’ welfare, yet it is clear that Ines sees the events so differently to the earlier narrators - but whose is the true story? Maybe both of them are true? It’s about perception - about understanding how badly Ines wants to get to Berlin - understanding why.

I will be honest and admit that during the first couple of chapters of Hand Me Down World I struggled. I struggled with the unusual narration, the fact that at that time the reader did not know who or what Ines really was. It is a unique and intriguing way of telling a story and once I became used to this quirk I became entranced by the story and the writing.

Each narrator has their own style, this in itself shows how talented an Lloyd Jones is. As Ines travels through Europe, each country, each place is described wonderfully.

It’s a kind of ‘lonely’ story. Ines is essentially a lonesome person, despite the fact that she meets many people on her journey, she never opens up to them, or reveals her real self. It is only towards the end of the story that the reader is allowed to enter into her world and some of her emotions and feelings are exposed.

The book blurb says ‘this is a novel you cannot stop thinking about’, and I would agree. It’s the kind of book that takes you way past bed-time, that makes you want to read ‘just one more page’. There is a certain air of mystery about it.

Essentially the story of the love of a mother, but also an exploration of different characters and how one story can be re-told in so many ways.

Heart-breaking in parts, often beautiful and quite inspiring."

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

Also posted on Goodreads.

"This is an unusual and thought provoking novel that is surely destined to linger in readers’ minds for a long time.
The first section of the book consists of a series of ‘testimonies’ of those whose lives have in some way been touched by the central character, an African woman known as Ines, as she is ‘handed down’ between them from Tunis to Berlin in search of the son she has been tricked into giving way. Through these narrators we learn Ines’ story at second hand, and in a fragmentary fashion, never quite sure how much each account is influenced by the speaker’s misconceptions, motives and outlook on life. Some of them are benevolent, others less so.
Only in the latter part of the novel are we allowed to hear Ines’ own voice, and even then we’re left not entirely certain of the accuracy of her account. Lloyd Jones has perfected the technique of the unreliable narrator. So skillful is the writing that, despite Ines’ admissions of illegal residency, manslaughter, various kinds of prostitution and theft from her employer, we somehow remain on her side. The scenes involving her small son are heart wrenching. I haven’t read Jones’ earlier, widely acclaimed novel ‘Mister Pip’, but will certainly be doing so in the future."

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

"This is a thoroughly engaging book, where I found myself re-reading the early chapters to get a fresh perspective on what followed.

‘Ines’ is an African immigrant who is forced into all kinds of acts in order to find her abducted son. Washed ashore in Sicily, she makes her way to Berlin where she believes her son is. The first half of the book is the points of view of some of the people she meets along the way, all of them drawn to her, but not all for philanthropic reasons. They make assumptions about her, just as we discover later she has made about them. On the surface she is quiet and unassuming, but really she is intelligent and aware and can be as calculating and manipulative as some of the people who use her. She has one goal, to find her boy, and she will stoop to any means to make that possible. So who is using who? The story did sag a little in the middle, especially the chapters concerning ‘Defoe’, but we find out later how much a role he has played in her life (or has he? he seems to be dismissed in Ines’ account later, certainly there are other people who have had a bigger impact on her life, not nearly so much as she has on him).

One of the more interesting aspects of the story is the variation in the accounts between Ines and the people whose testimonies we are reading. Are these really different but honest recollections of the same events or are the ‘speakers’ deliberately manipulating their versions to make themselves look better? (I know what I believe!)

I found my sympathies for Ines changing throughout the story, from feeling pity, to not liking her very much, back to wanting her to find the happiness that has been denied her all her life.

The final chapter is finely tuned to bring everything into sharp focus, and after so much hardship and disappointment it looks like there might be a happy ending for Ines at last. The mark of a good story is to be able to leave the reader wanting to know what happens next, which Lloyd Jones achieves masterfully. "

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

"Having read and really liked Lloyd Jones’ last novel, Mister Pip, I knew I would like Hand Me Down World but I didn’t know how much. Jones brings to light the darker side of life in an always engaging and startling way. All those things to which the world turns a blind eye: human trafficking, prostitution, homelessness, illegal immigration are all brought into focus.
Hand Me Down World tells the story of an African woman (who calls herself Ines) as she travels from Tunis to Berlin in search of her son. We learn about Ines through the testimonies of people she meets along the way: the truck driver, the alpine hunter, the blind man. We don’t know until we hear from Ines in her own words that some of these people are not what they seem and the things they say might not be the truth. Ines is passed from one person to the next. Some people are helpful but most want something in return for their help. It also becomes clear that Ines’ story is far from simple and she has her own secrets.
Ines’ story is heart-breaking but never miserable, beautiful but never sentimental, eye-opening but never judgemental. It is a deftly handled novel about things which really matter."

http://www.shelfari.com/books/14539677/Hand-Me-Down-World/readers-reviews

"I've never read a Lloyd Jones book and started to read Hand Me Down World about the same time as I heard an interview with him on Radio Four's Front Row. It was interesting to hear him talk about his approach to telling the story of Ines (as we know her) through the eyes of others whom she meets on her journey. I've never read a book like this before.

The story essentially revolves around a hotel maid/supervisor who is working at an upmarket hotel in Tunisia when she's swept off her feet in love with a German tourist. She soon becomes pregnant and living in a bubble of happiness, does not foresee she's been used and that her baby will be 'taken from her breast' and trafficked back to Europe. So her journey begins as an illegal immigrant, firstly landing in Sicily and takes her up to Berlin where she seeks her baby. What her plans are after she locates him she does not know.

Her journey up through Europe is recounted by the people whom she meets, who she sometimes steals from, hitchhikes with, who beat her, pity her, give her kindness and money. These are eyes that we are forced to see Ines through whether we like the storyteller or not. Their versions of the 'truth' to who they see Ines as are sometimes, uncomfortable, grotesque and occasionally heart warming. Ines could be as faceless and separate as any of the migrants we read about and this approach challenges the reader to review their own attitude to the character.

The majority of Ines's story is told from the perspective of Defoe (as he is known; no one can ever quite be trusted) who observes Ines during her employment as a carer for a blind man in Berlin. He sees a remote woman with the private motivations which he experiences alongside the emotional and selfish entanglement he finds himself in between her and her employer.

It's not until the final section of the book that we hear from Ines. The reader has been backed into a corner full of dispassion and shock at her actions because her motives and emotions are hidden from those she interacts with. So when Ines finally tells her story, from the moment she leaves Tunisia, the reader feels the jigsaw starting to fit together to conjure a narrative far richer and emotionally conflicting than is comfortable. The end was quite gentle, really moving yet credible so the story felt like it had a future beyond the Jones’ narrative.

Hand Me Down World is a book which will stay with me for some time. Snatches of the narrative require more thought than books usually garner, so easily closed and forgotten when you reach the end. Jones is a story teller of great skill; I'll be looking out for more of his award winning writing."

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

"This latest novel from Lloyd Jones is the compelling and intriguing story of “Ines”, an African hotel worker who travels illegally to Europe to find her son. This story is told through the narratives of the various characters she comes into contact with on her journey (as they hand her down from one to the other, the idea which provided the title), and then from her own perspective. In this manner the novel focusses on how people treat each other, and also on how they shape their world according to their own preoccupations.

This novel tells its story in a hyper-realistic manner, never resorting to sensationalism, and avoiding an over-the-top climax. The depiction of maternal love in the novel manages to be moving, yet restrained; Jones conveys the desperation of Ines’s search, and her yearning for her child, yet does so without resorting to sentimentality or unrealistic emotional displays. Similarly, Ines is an illegal immigrant in Europe, yet is never patronised or demonized.

The movement of the story through Europe is similarly well illustrated: Jones allows the characters to vividly describe the scenes of their own Italy, Austria, and Germany. An example is the alpine hunter and guide, who subtly portrays their surroundings through discussing its suitability to partridge hunting.

The most fascinating aspect of Jones’s novel is the narration. Using the first-person narration of the different people that Ines comes into contact with on her way to Berlin (ostensibly the testimonies that they give to the inspector who has been following her journey), proves an arresting manner in which to tell her story.

The difference in the voices and styles of narration showcase Jones‘s talents, as each of these sections are interspersed with each of the character‘s own preoccupations and concerns. From the African co-worker who tells of her time working with Ines in simple English, to the defensive and self-serving truck driver who makes excuses and reasons away his every action, to the blind Ralf, who describes his world in how it sounds and feels. Each of the accounts also provide a different perspective on Ines’s own character, as each narration seems to see her in a slightly different light. There is a snail collector who pities her and aids her in a manner close to how she would a frightened animal, the American food critic who is reluctant to help her because she is an illegal “alien”, and there is Hannah, who only refers to Ines as “the black woman”.

It becomes apparent as you move through this novel that each version of events is not necessarily reliable (in a post-modernist fashion), and that each character is seeking to present themselves in the best possible light. Some of the narratives contradict each other, and when Ines comes to tell her own version of events it contradicts many of things we have read previously. This of course also reminds us that we can’t take her version of events for granted either, adding another fascinating layer to this novel’s depth, and ensuring that you will want to start again from the beginning almost immediately.

This narrative approach manages to convey both the isolated nature of existence, through each character‘s subjectivity and illustrating how we can never really know them, and humanity’s attempts to bridge this isolation, through the depicted relationships and rare instances of actual connection. The ending is also inconclusive, allowing the reader to decide with which version of existence the tale has resolved itself.

Ultimately, this is a compelling story, told in a fascinating manner, and will leave you thinking for long after it’s finished."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2HK8D94E0RNLR/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

4 stars

"I've never read a Lloyd Jones book and started to read Hand Me Down World about the same time as I heard an interview with him on Radio Four's Front Row. It was interesting to hear him talk about his approach to telling the story of Ines (as we know her) through the eyes of others whom she meets on her journey. I've never read a book like this before.

The story essentially revolves around a hotel maid/supervisor who is working at an upmarket hotel in Tunisia when she's swept off her feet in love with a German tourist. She soon becomes pregnant and living in a bubble of happiness, does not foresee she's been used and that her baby will be 'taken from her breast' and trafficked back to Europe. So her journey begins as an illegal immigrant, firstly landing in Sicily and takes her up to Berlin where she seeks her baby. What her plans are after she locates him she does not know.

Her journey up through Europe is recounted by the people whom she meets, who she sometimes steals from, hitchhikes with, who beat her, pity her, give her kindness and money. These are eyes that we are forced to see Ines through whether we like the storyteller or not. Their versions of the 'truth' to who they see Ines as are sometimes, uncomfortable, grotesque and occasionally heart warming. Ines could be as faceless and separate as any of the migrants we read about and this approach challenges the reader to review their own attitude to the character.

The majority of Ines's story is told from the perspective of Defoe (as he is known; no one can ever quite be trusted) who observes Ines during her employment as a carer for a blind man in Berlin. He sees a remote woman with the private motivations which he experiences alongside the emotional and selfish entanglement he finds himself in between her and her employer.

It's not until the final section of the book that we hear from Ines. The reader has been backed into a corner full of dispassion and shock at her actions because her motives and emotions are hidden from those she interacts with. So when Ines finally tells her story, from the moment she leaves Tunisia, the reader feels the jigsaw starting to fit together to conjure a narrative far richer and emotionally conflicting than is comfortable. The end was quite gentle, really moving yet credible so the story felt like it had a future beyond the Jones' narrative.

Hand Me Down World is a book which will stay with me for some time. Snatches of the narrative require more thought than books usually garner, so easily closed and forgotten when you reach the end. Jones is a story teller of great skill; I'll be looking out for more of his award winning writing. "

http://This latest novel from Lloyd Jones is the compelling and intriguing story of

4 stars

"This latest novel from Lloyd Jones is the compelling and intriguing story of "Ines", an African hotel worker who travels illegally to Europe to find her son. This story is told through the narratives of the various characters she comes into contact with on her journey (as they hand her down from one to the other, the idea which provided the title), and then from her own perspective. In this manner the novel focusses on how people treat each other, and also on how they shape their world according to their own preoccupations.
This novel tells its story in a hyper-realistic manner, never resorting to sensationalism, and avoiding an over-the-top climax. The depiction of maternal love in the novel manages to be moving, yet restrained; Jones conveys the desperation of Ines's search, and her yearning for her child, yet does so without resorting to sentimentality or unrealistic emotional displays. Similarly, Ines is an illegal immigrant in Europe, yet is never patronised or demonized.
The movement of the story through Europe is similarly well illustrated: Jones allows the characters to vividly describe the scenes of their own Italy, Austria, and Germany. An example is the alpine hunter and guide, who subtly portrays their surroundings through discussing its suitability to partridge hunting.
The most fascinating aspect of Jones's novel is the narration. Using the first-person narration of the different people that Ines comes into contact with on her way to Berlin (ostensibly the testimonies that they give to the inspector who has been following her journey), proves an arresting manner in which to tell her story.
The difference in the voices and styles of narration showcase Jones`s talents, as each of these sections are interspersed with each of the character`s own preoccupations and concerns. From the African co-worker who tells of her time working with Ines in simple English, to the defensive and self-serving truck driver who makes excuses and reasons away his every action, to the blind Ralf, who describes his world in how it sounds and feels. Each of the accounts also provide a different perspective on Ines's own character, as each narration seems to see her in a slightly different light. There is a snail collector who pities her and aids her in a manner close to how she would a frightened animal, the American food critic who is reluctant to help her because she is an illegal "alien", and there is Hannah, who only refers to Ines as "the black woman".
It becomes apparent as you move through this novel that each version of events is not necessarily reliable (in a post-modernist fashion), and that each character is seeking to present themselves in the best possible light. Some of the narratives contradict each other, and when Ines comes to tell her own version of events it contradicts many of things we have read previously. This of course also reminds us that we can't take her version of events for granted either, adding another fascinating layer to this novel's depth, and ensuring that you will want to start again from the beginning almost immediately.
This narrative approach manages to convey both the isolated nature of existence, through each character`s subjectivity and illustrating how we can never really know them, and humanity's attempts to bridge this isolation, through the depicted relationships and rare instances of actual connection. The ending is also inconclusive, allowing the reader to decide with which version of existence the tale has resolved itself.
Ultimately, this is a compelling story, told in a fascinating manner, and will leave you thinking for long after it's finished. "

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1P8W0G3F6OFQF/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1848544790&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=

3 stars

"Hand Me Down World is the story of one woman's journey to find her child, as glimpsed by the people she meets along the way. "Her story is in the hands of others" as the author himself has put it. A truck driver, a chess player, an alpine guide, a poet-thief, a film researcher, a blind man - otherwise unconnected lives linked by the thread of one woman's journey. Determined to be reunited with her son, who has been taken to Berlin by his German father, she leaves her job as a maid in a Tunisian hotel and travels across Europe as an illegal immigrant.

I found it to be quite a far-fetched tale in every sense - at one point, for example, she appears to be trying to cross the alps on foot. Also, the narration style never changes, so the voices of the characters are not distinct - although their view of the events they describe certainly is.

Only in the final part of the book do we get to hear her version of the story and see her perspective on the events previously described by those other characters. Was their testimony the truth? The whole truth? How can we ever know what the whole truth is? And how much truth can we handle anyway?

This is a book full of questions. "What are we supposed to see? What is it we are supposed to think?" the blind man asks regarding a disturbing photograph found in his late father's wardrobe. What indeed. Perhaps, as the woman herself observes: "the only way to get through where we are from one day to the next is to think of where we are as a better place."

At its heart this is a story of the quiet determination of a mother to go anywhere and do anything to be with her child, so Hand Me Down World may resonate more with women readers than men, but will doubtless give reading groups plenty to talk about. I'd like to suggest that such groups also consider reading A Seventh Man - John Berger and Jean Mohr's recently re-published book about migrant workers - as a companion piece. "

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

"An African hotel supervisor has an affair and a child with a foreign tourist. He doesn’t intend to abandon her though, but take the child back to his home in Berlin to be brought up by him and his wife. She determines to follow him at all costs and see her son again. The story follows her trek across Europe, exploited, helped or hindered by strangers.
Sad to say I was a little disappointed with this. It started fine. I loved the way the story was told, passed on to the next person in the chain who picked it up and carried on but felt once it reached Berlin things stalled. "

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/125137549

3 stars

"** spoiler alert ** There are books whose themes you find constantly occupy your mind, and the blurb from Hand Me Down World promises that. Sadly, while I didn't dislike it at all, it didn't blow me away either.

The story is told from two perspectives. The first comes from those who encountered our protagonist. The second is her version of events. I thought it was well-written and very clever, I just don't think the novel worked for me. I think it's a book that my mother would like very much, though, so I'm passing it on to her.

I was sent this novel via the Real Readers service."

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews

Less hand me down world than hand me down story; the novel unfolds in a Rashomon-esque manner, offering us tantalising glimpses of the mysterious central character from multiple viewpoints. Although admittedly a clever device, the conflicting voices are rarely distinct enough to offer any real handle on the speaker, meaning the interweaving narratives lack nuance, at times feeling stale and lifeless.

Nevertheless, there is fun to be had piecing together the ‘truth’ of the matter; accounts of events differ wildly, with no narrator more reliable than any another given most have something to hide.
Absorbing the story at one remove (sometimes two) allows us to appreciate Jones’ skill in satirising our society’s attitude to displaced people; the central character is a faceless and stateless African immigrant, whose name we never learn. Instead we witness the reactions of the people she comes into contact with; whilst all are aware of, and comment on, her otherness, few trouble to ask themselves what could have made her desperate enough to risk her life to enter Europe.

Nor does Jones fall into the trap of painting the heroine as a saintly, martyred figure: she is willing to go to any lengths to recover her abducted son, damaging many of those she encounters in the process. She lost my sympathy after drowning a parrot on the opening pages, but whilst this was undoubtedly off-putting it had the advantage of leaving me free to detach from the heroine and admire the narrative interplay of the emerging mystery.

Overall, whilst this novel is thought-provoking and cleverly crafted, it ultimately seems to be a triumph of form over substance. It frequently noodles off in uninteresting directions, exploring the backstories of lesser characters; and on the occasions when these digressions did catch my interest I was disappointed that the loose ends were left untangled, as in the case of Defoe’s character; he drops hints about having fled a murky past, but, frustratingly, we never uncover his secret.

This was the first book I read by Lloyd Jones, and I’m sorry to say I won’t be reading another.

http://www.handmedownworld.co.uk/index.php?reviews/more/10 ***

submitted one writing as Anne Hatherill (my mother, to whom I passed on the book...) Sorry, didn't really like this one at all.