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A Brief History of Seven Killings A Novel Marlon James Books

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A Brief History of Seven Killings A Novel Marlon James Books

This was probably the most challenging novel I've read in several years. Who am I kidding? There's no probably about it. Marlon James has constructed an incredibly complex story, and it took every bit of memory available to me to keep up. He was kind enough to include a cast of characters, but I made it a point to refer to it as little as possible, opting instead to try and follow the story under my own power.

Add to the story's complexity the fact that most of the characters are from the ghettos of Kingston, and speak in a patois that takes some serious acclimation initially, and will slow your reading speed to a crawl at times. Amazingly though, after spending nearly a week with these characters, I felt like I had picked up the meanings quite well and could read those sections much quicker. Strangely, for me, this adaptation was the most rewarding aspect of this particular reading experience. In fact, as much respect as I now have for Marlon James' talent, I have to admit that I did not actually enjoy this novel, and found it made for an almost constantly uncomfortable reading experience.

The last time I felt the inability to enjoy such a well written book, I was reading In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, a Pulitzer finalist. Both books require the reader to spend most of their time in very difficult places. By difficult I mean places where innocents suffer a great deal of agony and injustice, and both books left me feeling a certain hopelessness from which I felt the reader was never released. That may well be James' intention, and the fact that he could take me to such places and make them feel so real as to make me uncomfortable is a testament to his talents.

This novel contains a great deal of incredibly graphic violence (including rape), and in fact I cannot name a more graphically violent novel that I've read in the past few years. Perhaps Philip Meyers' "The Son" comes close? There is also a lot of quite graphic sex, and since the majority of the novel's many characters are hardcore criminals, the language is very often coarse throughout the story. The number of such moments are what makes it difficult for me to recommend the book to anyone whose taste and tolerance for such things I do not know well. But the novel seems to me to have been an honest one, and as you wallow in the depths and the dregs with these gangsters, you sense the suffering from which they were born, and and begin to understand their Machiavellian existence. Again, James was able to take me to some places I've certainly never been, but I can't necessarily say I'm glad I went there.

Overall, this is a brilliantly executed novel by a man who possesses a great deal of talent, and yet it is a book that is likely to prove a challenging read to most, for the reasons I've listed and more. I can't say that I'm happy to have read it, but I can certainly appreciate the art that James has created, and I do take some personal satisfaction in having followed such an intricate story to its end. Reading difficult fiction isn't always enjoyable, but it is usually beneficial, and for that I can say I'm grateful to have read A Brief History of Seven Killings.


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A Brief History of Seven Killings A Novel Marlon James Books Reviews

This book is a critically important book to read, especially for those interested in Jamaica in particular, and the forces impacting on our world. It was challenging for me to read as it plunged me into a dark reality that is far from my livity, first growing up White on a quiet farm in Kansas then being a top official in Philadelphia and directing a university-based Multicultural Institute. But I found it hard to put down. As an award-winning book, clearly many have found it outstanding, as did I. I have long been drawn to Bob Marley as an uplifting prophet. In my early 30's I dreamed I was to have a guest house in Jamaica in retirement. Fifteen years later I went looking for it, instead, I met a Rasta man I was instantly drawn to--it seemed ordained--we married and lived in Philadelphia. He guided the building of the guest house starting in the 10th year of our marriage. We're now living in Jamaica, celebrating our 22nd loving year together. My book about this "fairy tale" journey, soon to be published, it is the opposite of James' but I still found his book so inspiring, motivating and instructional about writing with a modified patois, and the use of em dashes instead of quotation marks. I wrote "Loving to be We" while musing in reggae music, enjoying the cool breezes on our veranda on the top of Mount Salem, overlooking Montego Bay, mountains, and the ocean. If you haven't yet, definitely get James's book and prepare yourself for action that I hope you've never experienced. If "white-bread' me can recommend it, it shows to me the range of readers who find it compelling, and I imagine you'll not regret it.
"A Brief History of Seven Killings", oh where do I start? This is a book full of unbridled ambition and certainly not for the faint of heart (and by that I don't mean specifically because of the violence) given the complex cast of characters, use of patois for the dialogue of the Jamaican characters and the sprawling Jamaican history that James relies on to propel the narrative. It has certainly met with near unanimous critical praise and awarded the prestigious Man Booker Prize last month. Anyone going against such platitudes is likely to face withering criticism for lacking the gravitas and intelligence to appreciate such an erudite novel.

So where do I begin. This book challenged me immensely, more than any book that I can remember since reading Richard Power's "Operation Wandering Soul" about 10 years ago --- my first and only Richard Power's novel. This was the 42nd book I read this year and by far took me more time to get through than the 41 that preceded it. This was for several reasons. (1) I lacked a deep understanding of post-colonial Jamaican history, (so spent time digging up information while reading) (2) I have no familiarity with patois so it often a slog to get through the dialogue of the Jamaican character and truly make sense and understand what was being discussed (I'm not suggesting James should have changed this, it just made it harder for someone unfamiliar). (3) There is an extremely long cast of characters. Even though James provides "a cast of characters" at the beginning, keeping track of them and understanding their intertwined nature is a challenge (4) The book is long and sprawling at nearly 700 pages so won't be a quick read anyway. I don't mind long books per se, my favorite novel of the year is "A Little Life", but the combination of all of the above was asking a lot of readers. At times, I almost gave up but kept with it because there was plenty that I enjoyed.

Was sticking with it worth it? James is surely a supremely talented novelist. I do believe that the last 200 hundred or so pages moves far quicker than the beginning 500 pages --- maybe I was sufficiently acclimated to all the points I made in the last paragraph. I did feel both a sense of accomplishment, relief and admiration (for James, not me) by the time I read the final page. Some were put off by the violence, but it did not bother me since it was a realistic reflection of the characters and people James was chronicling rather than being gratuitous. The reason that I'm only giving a 3 star review is that while I don't mind putting the time and energy into a novel, it felt more like work than enjoyment every time I turned my on to start reading. I often thought about what I wasn't reading instead of "A Brief History" something that never happens when reading other great novels. For instance, I couldn't put down "A Little Life" or "The Turner House" and felt a sense of loss when I finished them that the characters and story would fade from memory as time elapsed.
This was probably the most challenging novel I've read in several years. Who am I kidding? There's no probably about it. Marlon James has constructed an incredibly complex story, and it took every bit of memory available to me to keep up. He was kind enough to include a cast of characters, but I made it a point to refer to it as little as possible, opting instead to try and follow the story under my own power.

Add to the story's complexity the fact that most of the characters are from the ghettos of Kingston, and speak in a patois that takes some serious acclimation initially, and will slow your reading speed to a crawl at times. Amazingly though, after spending nearly a week with these characters, I felt like I had picked up the meanings quite well and could read those sections much quicker. Strangely, for me, this adaptation was the most rewarding aspect of this particular reading experience. In fact, as much respect as I now have for Marlon James' talent, I have to admit that I did not actually enjoy this novel, and found it made for an almost constantly uncomfortable reading experience.

The last time I felt the inability to enjoy such a well written book, I was reading In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, a Pulitzer finalist. Both books require the reader to spend most of their time in very difficult places. By difficult I mean places where innocents suffer a great deal of agony and injustice, and both books left me feeling a certain hopelessness from which I felt the reader was never released. That may well be James' intention, and the fact that he could take me to such places and make them feel so real as to make me uncomfortable is a testament to his talents.

This novel contains a great deal of incredibly graphic violence (including rape), and in fact I cannot name a more graphically violent novel that I've read in the past few years. Perhaps Philip Meyers' "The Son" comes close? There is also a lot of quite graphic sex, and since the majority of the novel's many characters are hardcore criminals, the language is very often coarse throughout the story. The number of such moments are what makes it difficult for me to recommend the book to anyone whose taste and tolerance for such things I do not know well. But the novel seems to me to have been an honest one, and as you wallow in the depths and the dregs with these gangsters, you sense the suffering from which they were born, and and begin to understand their Machiavellian existence. Again, James was able to take me to some places I've certainly never been, but I can't necessarily say I'm glad I went there.

Overall, this is a brilliantly executed novel by a man who possesses a great deal of talent, and yet it is a book that is likely to prove a challenging read to most, for the reasons I've listed and more. I can't say that I'm happy to have read it, but I can certainly appreciate the art that James has created, and I do take some personal satisfaction in having followed such an intricate story to its end. Reading difficult fiction isn't always enjoyable, but it is usually beneficial, and for that I can say I'm grateful to have read A Brief History of Seven Killings.