“The problem with a book is that you never know what it’s planning to do to you until you’re too far into it.”– Marlon James Marlon James won the Man Booker Prize in 2015 for with this novel for which he set a tone noting he is aan author ahead of his time. In case you missed it, here is a chance to open up this magnum opus and plunge into it feet first. He takes the reader on a violent roller coaster of historical fiction, where one cannot escape because it has hooked the reader by cheek in the most grotesque way.
The book begins with an epilogue of a dead politician whose ghost is speaking directly to the reader. It is eerie. This begins the narrative that will haunt the reader from the first page to the last. Living in the Jamaican world from the 1960s through the 1990s. It is filled with death and carnage; nothing in this book is polite.
The readers side car along an American journalist, Alex Pierce, who is trying to discover the information needed to write a piece about Bob Marley in The Rolling Stone. Everything is leading up to the Dec. 3, 1976 assassination attempt on Bob Marley, which was attempted while he was rehearsing for the Smile Jamaican concert at his home.
There are a lot of different narratives throughout this book. The five sections of the book are each named after a musical track specific to what is happening during the events of a single day. Each chapter within each section is a different narrator. There are so many protagonists and antagonists that having a pen and paper to write down everyone and who they are will be helpful in keeping track of what’s going on. It’s as if one takes the complexity of David Foster Wallace, an author who is known for his complex writings, mix (shake don’t stir) it with William Faulkner’s stylistic prose and explode them together in what could be the smoothest drink one can have when it comes to terms of the novel.
The characters are all very real, from the American journalist to the gangs of Jamaica led by Josey Whales, who is one of the worst people to walk this earth. A quote from him says, “killing don’t need a reason. This is the ghetto. Reason is for rich people. We have madness.” Rape, murder without a cause, stealing and no remorse for the human soul all take place in pursuit of white lines (cocaine) and money.
It is uncertain which parts of this story are true and what parts are complete fiction. But, it is a story that will bring to light the dark side of the Jamaican world when words like “groovy” and “far out” ride along while the disco swing encompass the world. There is added complexity in this novel with the use of the Jamaican dialect throughout. It is a bit difficult to grasp what is being said. However, if the reader sticks with it, being inside the mind of Marlon James will be a most rewarding experience.
