Asylum and Exile: The Hidden Voices of London (Manifestos for the 21st Century) by Bidisha

Asylum and Exile: The Hidden Voices of London (Manifestos for the 21st Century) Reviews

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  cj

  So this is one of those books when you pick it up it's a little hard to figure out exactly what it is (and the back of my copy says Fiction... which it isn't.) It's basically Bidisha recounting her experience of working with asylum seekers, refugees and displaced people in London, with the balance of the book skewed towards telling their stories, in their own words. That sounds terribly worthy, but it's not, really. There's funny bits, and all the people she talks about seem like real people, not victims or saints or symbols.
  
  I really liked it. She was mainly leading writing classes, and one of the really interesting things she talks about is these little pieces of writing she would find in their notebooks when they handed them in, which hadn't been discussed out loud, just these little fragments of experiences recounted sort of out of context, like stand-alone memories, or bits of letters to family members. They read like little bits of stories occurring outside of formal space, kind of growing through the cracks.
  
  That was interesting to me just in terms of, in the UK it can feel like we only hear the voices of certain groups like refugees and asylum seekers in sanctioned spaces and in ways that fit with the way the current debate about their status is being framed. So people get their twenty seconds on the news or whatever, but it’s very much like, these are the spaces we will allow your voice to be heard and this is what you’re expected to say. One of the things I liked about this book is that, although it's rooted in Bidisha's experience, inevitably, there’s not particularly a controlling authorial voice or a political argument dictating the shape of the narrative. Bidisha doesn't deploy the stories and the anecdotes she shares to political ends, they’re just given space on their own terms, and they’re meaningful on their own terms. They have space to breathe. Which ends up being political in its own way (and there is a certain amount of political and legal context, too, but it's done very lightly), but never overbearingly so.
  
  So this is really good, I think. Elegant, non-judgemental and moving. Plus I met Bidisha recently and she was super-lovely, so five stars all round.
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  Bertel Martin

  Well written account of Bidisha's experience of the personal lives of asylum seekers and refugees who took part in her creative writing class. Bidisha makes sure that the accounts of their experiences are in their words and not her reporting what the said, she also makes sure she is a part of the book, but not the subject of the book and her emotional responses slip through now and then but are not there to generate feelings in the reader, that is not her intention. The intention is to just let the asylum seekers and refugees have a voice. She does it well.
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  Maria Longley

  This book arises out of the literature classes Bidisha runs for asylum seekers and refugees in London. Through recounting chaotic classes and conversations and people's writings we get a glimpse of the people attending the classes with their variety of stories and languages and hopes and the diversity of human response to these situations. It's funny and moving and thought provoking for such a short little book.