The Book of Night Women
I just finished listening to Marlon James, The Book of Night Women, narrated by Robin Miles. I think this is the best book I can remember reading/hearing in a long time. I was totally blown away by the first chapter and riveted all the way. It is good on so many levels, and I feel that my own ability to do it justice is lacking. The narrator speaks in a Jamaican dialect that is rhythmic and musical, especially as read with passion and drama by Robin Miles. Other characters have distinct voices and accents as they speak. The book describes unspeakable horrors in graphic detail, and yet I was always entranced by the voice and the characters and the drama. It is also emotionally deep and complex in the universal way of all great literature. It is "about" slavery, but not only about slavery. It is about the way good and evil intertwine in real people.
It is available in both book and audio CD from the Madison public library.
Here's the words of an Audible customer review that I can only echo: "Marlon James has created a sweeping epic that draws you into the life of slaves & masters in the Jamaica of the late 1700's. Edge of your seat suspenseful, at times almost too horrific to bear, but your love of the characters along with their humanity and insanity won't let you turn away.
The narrator, Robin Miles, is a revelation! So many characters, male & female, Jamaican, Irish and British, all from one mouth. Many times I had to stop and make sure there wasn't a cast of actors voicing the roles.
This book is a truly magnificent achievement. Treat yourself."
To quote the publisher's summary: "The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the 18th century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they - and she - will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans.
But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link. Lilith's story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion - between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to grace the page recently - and the secret of that voice is one of the book's most intriguing mysteries."
It is available in both book and audio CD from the Madison public library.
Here's the words of an Audible customer review that I can only echo: "Marlon James has created a sweeping epic that draws you into the life of slaves & masters in the Jamaica of the late 1700's. Edge of your seat suspenseful, at times almost too horrific to bear, but your love of the characters along with their humanity and insanity won't let you turn away.
The narrator, Robin Miles, is a revelation! So many characters, male & female, Jamaican, Irish and British, all from one mouth. Many times I had to stop and make sure there wasn't a cast of actors voicing the roles.
This book is a truly magnificent achievement. Treat yourself."
To quote the publisher's summary: "The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the 18th century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they - and she - will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans.
But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link. Lilith's story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion - between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to grace the page recently - and the secret of that voice is one of the book's most intriguing mysteries."