MY NAME IS LEON by KIT DE WAAL

"From the first few pages of this extraordinarily written novel, I was hooked. Since I’m renowned for my lack of interest in children, that speaks very highly of Kit de Waal’s writing style. She’s written a book for an adult audience entirely from a child’s perspective, and it’s engaging and mature. The protagonist is Leon, a young black boy in England, whose mother is so incompetent and disinterested, she loses custody of her children. Leon is thrown into foster care, along with his infant half-brother whom he loves dearly and feels duty-bound to care for. While Leon’s brother is deemed adoptable because of his skin color and age, Leon is looked at as a lost cause. The boys are separated, and Leon has to adjust to a completely new world he has no control over and doesn’t understand. It’s a brilliant concept, and one that could have gone horribly wrong had it not been so carefully crafted and treated with kindness. The story is painfully realistic, and characters who could have been turned into evil stereotypes are given life" "This is a heart-wrenching story of a young boy who goes into the foster system, never to get out. Along with Leon is his baby brother Jake, but Jake is a white baby and is adopted quickly while Leon is stuck in the system. Leon has to leave behind his favorite toys, his mentally challenged mother, his grandmother and the only home he has known. He goes into a world of ladies who seem to like him okay, but do they really love him? He sets out on a quest to find Jake again and to take care of him as he did when Jake was a young infant. This seems to be a realistic look at the foster care system and at children who want to escape but can’t. It also portrays, in the background, the upcoming wedding of Princess Diana to Prince Charles and the racial tensions of the early 1980’s ..."

 

무책임한 부모들 때문에 흑인인 형은 'foster care' 으로 가고 동생은 'white' 이기 때문에 입양이 되어진다. 언뜻 보면 무슨 말인가 싶지만 ... 아무튼 이야기는 'foster care' 에 맡겨진 9살 소년의 시점에서 이루어 진다. 이야기는 더 나아가 인종차별, 불평등, 불의, IRA 등 80년대 영국사회의 어두운 모습을 잘 보여주는 작품이다. 작가는 친절하게 다음과 같이 이 책의 의미를 말해준다  "Leon and those around him learn that love and tolerance can often be found in the most unlikely place"  문장이 비교적 무난하고 편집이 읽기에 편하다. 다만 독자에 따라서 좀 지루하다는 생각을 할 수 있다.