38:. Inspired by Bennett's interactions with the Caribbean immigrant community after his migration from Jamaica to Britain in 1954 and first published in 1959, the novel is billed as a "powerful story on the colour problem" and a "novel that will long be remembered" on the front and back covers respectively.
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follows
Jamaican clerk Tom Hendon, as he leaves his family in pursuit of a better career in London. While en route to England, Tom actively avoids talking to the "ordinary" and "uncultured" immigrants on the ship. Back home, Tom's spouse Emma, a Jamaican educator, has an affair with school inspector
95:: "Although uninterested in being a literary masterpiece, Bennett's forgotten novel presents a curiously rewarding combination of melodrama and satire to foreground the serious ramifications of Britain's false sense of belonging." A copy of the novel is showcased at the World City gallery at the
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as an "interesting and unusual book". While pointing out
Bennett's use of "long words and stilted phraseology", she praised the novel's "descriptive power" and "delightful humor". She concluded that works like
54:. At the same time, Tom has an affair with a fellow Jamaican immigrant, Marie. Crost is subsequently murdered by Marie's husband; Marie gives birth to Tom's son, Rupert, and dies soon after. Reunited at
58:, Tom and Emma reflect on the "hypocrisy" of Jamaican society. Tom places his "adopted son" in the care of Hilda, who is later revealed to be Tom's sister, and begins a short-lived political career.
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while noting that the struggles of
Bennett's protagonist were similar to those of "Caribbean immigrants to Britain in the 1950s". Alison Donnell discussed the novel in
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could "explain and endear the
Jamaicans to the ordinary Englishman far better than all the learned studies of the coloured problem." F. I. Case compared the novel to
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Donnell, Alison (2020). "Looking Back, Looking
Forward: Revisiting the Windrush Myth". In Susheila Nasta; Mark U. Stein (eds.).
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Case, F. I. (2004). "Bennett, Alvin
Gladstone (1918– )". In Eugene Benson; L.W. Conolly (eds.).
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Blackening
Britain: Caribbean Radicalism from Windrush to Decolonization
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Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing
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The
Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing
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Novel by the Jamaican author Alvin Gladstone Bennett
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288:"Because They Know Not by A. G. Bennett"
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34:is a novel by Jamaican author
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247:. Rowman & Littlefield.
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56:Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica
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336:Cambridge University Press
243:Cantres, James G. (2020).
218:Museum of London Docklands
97:Museum of London Docklands
50:Max Crost, who is also an
285:Mackay, Mercedes (1959).
303:Oxford University Press
36:Alvin Gladstone Bennett
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395:Novels set in Jamaica
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79:Because They Know Not
74:Because They Know Not
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31:Because They Know Not
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390:Novels set in London
338:. pp. 195–211.
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84:The Lonely Londoners
62:Reception and legacy
385:Novels about racism
380:1959 British novels
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305:: 261–262.
177:Mackay 1959
165:Mackay 1959
374:Categories
223:27 January
103:References
89:Sam Selvon
52:anglophile
25:Book cover
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189:Case 2004
108:Citations
301:(232).
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