A Brief History of Seven Killings: A Novel / James, Marlon

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, October 2014: This is a book that I did not expect to enjoy. Having finished it and feeling, as I do now, that A Brief History of Seven Killings is one of the best books I ve read all year I went back and identified the reasons why I did not expect to like it. Reason #1 The story is an oral history told in multiple voices: that s true, but James enormous talent makes the multiple voices work. Reading the novel is an immersive experience the characters are real, they are engaging, and James uses them to look at all sides of the story. Yes, the multiple points-of-view are difficult at first, but each voice quickly distinguishes itself as unique and important; the payoff is a novel of sweeping scope and emotion. Reason #2 Many of the characters speak in Jamaican patois: like many readers, I m not a big fan of dialect on the page. Tell me what they say, not necessarily how they say it. But James pulls it off with remarkable ease. I expected the patois to start to grate once I got further into the book. It never did. The language only added to my understanding of the story and its characters. Reason #3 Violence: this is not an easy book, particularly when it comes to violence. It starts early, and there s a lot of it (certainly more than seven killings). But it s there for a reason. By showing the violence, the poverty, and the struggle to survive in 70s Jamaica, James illustrates how the ghetto can change a person. Over time, we see how every man and woman is changed. Reason #4 It s about Jamaica: I hesitate to admit that I wasn t initially interested in a book set in Jamaica. Am I just not interested in a world so different from mine? Whatever the underlying reason, I was wrong to think that way. I could take the easy route and say that this novel is about something more than Jamaica, but that seems obvious. All I can say is: these people were real to me. And like all great novels, James work drew me in, entertained me, and changed me in ways I could not have anticipated. Chris Schluep