Fascination in France
Sep. 1st, 2015 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyA conversation overheard between my mother and her aunt Claire:
Mum: I phoned Gary to tell him and he had sad news too, about Ricky. Do you remember Ricky?
Claire: No, I don't think so.
Mum: He's the one who jumped on the trampoline and shoved something up his —
Claire: Oh, yes, Ricky!
I'm sorry Claire interrupted, but then, the truth is probably duller than what we can imagine.
August book read
This seems very sparse, especially as I seem to have done nothing but read all month. So while it's only one book, there were also an awful lot of academic articles about thinking and decision-making.
* A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James (2014)
I'm going to try reading the Booker shortlist again this year, and thought I'd get a head start by picking one off the longlist. So if it gets shortlisted, I'm already one up; if it doesn't, reading one extra literary novel won't kill me. Did I pick this one because the title suggested it was going to be brief? Yes, I did. Was that a misapprehension I wouldn't have had if I'd read it in hard copy rather than on the Kindle? Yes, it was. This is not a brief book. Also, there are way more than seven killings. A more accurate title would be An Epic Story about a Decades-Long Bloodbath or Quite a Lot of Words about the Worst People in Jamaica.
As that suggests, this book is set in Jamaica, and I feel a reader might benefit from knowing more about Jamaican politics than I do. It would probably also benefit from a re-read, to go back and see what I missed the first time. Even as I was reading it, I thought I should be paying more attention to all the times a particular character's white Datsun was mentioned, in order to track his movements because he was fairly obviously Up To Something.
Anyway, the first two parts of this book are about Jamaican politics in the 1970s, as seen through the eyes of various people: a gang lord, a couple of his enforcers, a politician's ghost, a Rolling Stone journalist, a CIA agent, a young woman who wants a visa to the US. The Singer, a global reggae superstar, is home to perform at a peace concert, and all of the characters want to talk to him. The gang lord is his old school friend, for example; the young woman is a former groupie; the CIA are interested because they think he's trying to spread communism throughout the world; a couple of the enforcers have been hired by person or persons unknown to assassinate him. (The Singer is Bob Marley, obviously, although his name is only mentioned once, about halfway through. I actually wondered if that was a mistake, as the book is so determined to call him the Singer every other time.) The assassination attempt fails and the book jumps into the 80s and 90s, as the gangs split up and move operations overseas, becoming crack dealers in Miami and New York.
This book is intense. It's a multi-voiced novel that uncompromisingly throws the reader into a very different world as part of an in-depth exploration of race and post-colonialism. A lot of it is written in patois and the characters happily call each other the n word, so if you're as white as I am, this is probably not a book to read aloud or re-enact. Also: stream of consciousness and weird punctuation, which I know is a deal-breaker for some people. There is a genuinely "ooh!" twist late in the story. Finally, it is horrifically violent. I can't say I actually enjoyed it, but I can see why this book was longlisted for the Booker. (I must admit my heart sank when I reached the fourth and fifth parts and even more new characters were introduced. I'd have chopped quite a few of them, particularly the ghost and the CIA agent.)
I thought while I was reading it that this is basically The Wire: Jamaica, so I am not at all surprised to find that HBO has optioned the book for a TV series.
Mum: I phoned Gary to tell him and he had sad news too, about Ricky. Do you remember Ricky?
Claire: No, I don't think so.
Mum: He's the one who jumped on the trampoline and shoved something up his —
Claire: Oh, yes, Ricky!
I'm sorry Claire interrupted, but then, the truth is probably duller than what we can imagine.
August book read
This seems very sparse, especially as I seem to have done nothing but read all month. So while it's only one book, there were also an awful lot of academic articles about thinking and decision-making.
* A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James (2014)
I'm going to try reading the Booker shortlist again this year, and thought I'd get a head start by picking one off the longlist. So if it gets shortlisted, I'm already one up; if it doesn't, reading one extra literary novel won't kill me. Did I pick this one because the title suggested it was going to be brief? Yes, I did. Was that a misapprehension I wouldn't have had if I'd read it in hard copy rather than on the Kindle? Yes, it was. This is not a brief book. Also, there are way more than seven killings. A more accurate title would be An Epic Story about a Decades-Long Bloodbath or Quite a Lot of Words about the Worst People in Jamaica.
As that suggests, this book is set in Jamaica, and I feel a reader might benefit from knowing more about Jamaican politics than I do. It would probably also benefit from a re-read, to go back and see what I missed the first time. Even as I was reading it, I thought I should be paying more attention to all the times a particular character's white Datsun was mentioned, in order to track his movements because he was fairly obviously Up To Something.
Anyway, the first two parts of this book are about Jamaican politics in the 1970s, as seen through the eyes of various people: a gang lord, a couple of his enforcers, a politician's ghost, a Rolling Stone journalist, a CIA agent, a young woman who wants a visa to the US. The Singer, a global reggae superstar, is home to perform at a peace concert, and all of the characters want to talk to him. The gang lord is his old school friend, for example; the young woman is a former groupie; the CIA are interested because they think he's trying to spread communism throughout the world; a couple of the enforcers have been hired by person or persons unknown to assassinate him. (The Singer is Bob Marley, obviously, although his name is only mentioned once, about halfway through. I actually wondered if that was a mistake, as the book is so determined to call him the Singer every other time.) The assassination attempt fails and the book jumps into the 80s and 90s, as the gangs split up and move operations overseas, becoming crack dealers in Miami and New York.
This book is intense. It's a multi-voiced novel that uncompromisingly throws the reader into a very different world as part of an in-depth exploration of race and post-colonialism. A lot of it is written in patois and the characters happily call each other the n word, so if you're as white as I am, this is probably not a book to read aloud or re-enact. Also: stream of consciousness and weird punctuation, which I know is a deal-breaker for some people. There is a genuinely "ooh!" twist late in the story. Finally, it is horrifically violent. I can't say I actually enjoyed it, but I can see why this book was longlisted for the Booker. (I must admit my heart sank when I reached the fourth and fifth parts and even more new characters were introduced. I'd have chopped quite a few of them, particularly the ghost and the CIA agent.)
I thought while I was reading it that this is basically The Wire: Jamaica, so I am not at all surprised to find that HBO has optioned the book for a TV series.