Ten Novels for Understanding the Modern British Identity

“Therefore, in the spirit of diversity and exploration, I have compiled a list of what I see as the ten best novels on modern British identity, to remind us that British identity is not exhausted by the referendum divides…”

Editor’s note: This piece has been modeled after Matt McManus’ October 8th article “Ten Books Every Progressive Should Read to Understand the Right.”

Introduction

Ostensibly a question regarding Great Britain’s economic and political relationship with the European Union, the Brexit referendum in 2016 was far more a means for Britain to work out what its identity is in the 21st century. In truth, the referendum became a proxy battle for more deeper battles to express themselves. Conflicts over questions of identity, culture, and what felt like the soul of the nation were more pertinent to the referendum and its surrounding discourse than any cost-benefit analysis over trade and the nature of Britain’s political relationship with Europe. Since the referendum, the question of “Leave” or “Remain” has expanded to become more an expression of identity, with liberals, progressives and internationalists sorting themselves into the Remain camp and conservatives, nationalists and communitarians tending to express themselves as Leavers. While today these identities still have much purchase on the self-consciousness of individuals in Great Britain, I have felt that viewing modern British identity solely through these Brexit identity lenses is both constraining and distracts us from the myriad of other identity formations and diverse experiences for people in British society today. Removing the Brexit referendum lens allows us to view British identity anew, to see that these identities, while indeed emotive for many, are not the only expressions of identity in Britain. In fact, they are growing to be rather stale and outdated. Therefore, in the spirit of diversity and exploration, I have compiled a list of what I see as the ten best novels on modern British identity, to remind us that British identity is not exhausted by the referendum divides, as well as that identity in Britain is a rich tapestry, culturally diverse, and an ongoing process of being, renewal, and discovery.

Ordinary People by Diana Evans (2018)

“‘Everything I was and what I am now,’ she said, ‘whatever that is. I’m not sure I know any more…'”

Diana Evan’s novel takes us intimately into the space of middle class black family life in suburban London. Damian, full of resentment towards his wife, Stephanie, whom he blames for his failure to become a writer, retreats into himself, unable to reconcile himself with what he sees as the collapsing of his individual “I” into the “we” that is his marriage. Melissa feels increasingly estranged from her former self, aware that while her motherhood has “extended herself,” it has also “erased” who she is. Her husband Michael is deeply distressed by the receding of her love for him; he becomes a shadow of his former self, no longer the confident, suave man of his youth. All the characters in this novel are consumed by a London that invades all aspects of their lives, suburbia, the commute, knife crime, and the antagonisms that these all bring. There is a sense in which these characters have all lost an essential part of their selves and, by extension, their identities. From this angle, the novel is a deeply existential one. Read this novel for an existential treatment of middle class life in suburban London.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000)

“Because this is the other thing about immigrants (‘fugees, émigrés, travellers): they cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.”