Category Archives: Afro-Caribbean Lit

January 25, 2016 · 12:34 AM

A Long Read of A Brief History . . .

marlonI started reading Marlon James’ epic novel A Brief History of Seven Killings in May 2015 and did not finish until January 2016.

I’m not a slow reader.  In the past year I’ve read lengthy novels such as The Famished Road and The Wizard of the Crow in two weeks.  I am also not averse to authors who utilize stream of consciousness, a complex technique that shifts between the interior monologues of multiple characters.  Toni Morrison’s Beloved is one of my favorite novels of all time.  But A Brief History bored me to the point that, for months, I lost motivation to finish.

If you are familiar with this blog, you will know that I am a huge fan of Marlon James.  His second novel The Book of Night Women, is among the best I’ve read in recent years.   But unfortunately, A Brief History took me on a journey that was cumbersome and painfully slow.  If you don’t believe me, note that the first few pages of the introduction include a list of roughly 30 characters, some introduced only briefly to the slowly building complex plot via stream of consciousness.  Although his writing in A Brief History is highly descriptive, illustrating James’ immense talent for language, the plot crawls, at times painfully, throughout much of the 680 pages

I don’t want to talk at length about what I did not like about this book.  We Afro-Librarians prefer to leave lengthy book reviews to critics.  This post is simply to share my thoughts on this highly lauded novel since so many readers have asked (via Twitter) for our opinion.  And there were beautiful moments and applause worthy passages.  The depiction of each significant death was simply poetic, magical even.  So if you’re interested in 20th century historic fiction novel depicting Jamaica, politics and the nuance that is Bob Marley, this book will not disappoint.  But readers be warned, this novel requires patience and stamina!

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July 30, 2014 · 8:33 PM

What She’s Reading: The Dew Breaker

411rs-5IxlL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_The Dew Breaker

National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and author Edwidge Danticat’s fourth fiction novel is certainly ambitious.  Following classics such as Breath Eyes, Memory and Krik? Krak!, the Dew Breaker begins in New York with the depiction of a loving father on a road trip with his daughter.  After revealing the sculpture she created in honor of her father’s time spent as a prisoner in Haiti, the true and haunting story of this family’s past unfolds.  The reader soon learns that the beloved father is the perpetrator of unforgivably heinous war crimes which he has since distanced himself from.

Unfortunately, this novel doesn’t live up to what the book blurb promises.   The story is powerful but feels somewhat shallow and unfinished….or perhaps over edited by the publisher.  There were times while reading that I wanted Danticat to dig deeper into the psychological scars carried by both the victims and perpetrators of Duvalier’s bloody reign.  I also waited for a culminating moment, a climax perhaps, that tied in the victims narratives through either a confrontation or internal revelation.  I’m a few pages from the end of this novel and thus far neither has occurred.  I’m left wondering if this story is too ambitious for Danticat’s depth of writing.  I hope I’m wrong . . .

Share your thoughts?

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April 24, 2014 · 4:36 AM

What She’s Reading: The Book of Night Women

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I’ll admit, this book has been sitting on my shelf since 2011.  But after writing last week’s post, “Magical Realism in Afro-literature”, I was finally motivated to dust it off and crack the binding.  What better time to pour myself into James’ haunting yet ethereal slave narrative than a month in which we celebrate magical realism and its contribution to the literary world?

Set in Jamaica, The Book of Night Women is a rare mixture of beautiful, lyrical prose and engaging narrative.  It isn’t often that I am captivated by a novel within the first few pages (or first few chapters) but The Book of Night Women had me hooked after this powerful first paragraph:

“People think blood red, but blood don’t got no colour.  Not when blood wash the floor she lying on as she scream for that son of a bitch to come, the lone baby of 1785. Not when the baby wash in crimson and squealing like it just depart heaven to come to hell, another place of red.  Not when the midwife know that the mother shed too much blood, and she who don’t reach fourteen birthday yet speak curse ‘pon the chile and the papa, and then drop down dead like old horse.  Not when blood spurt from the skin, or spring from the axe, the cat-o-nine, the whip, the cane and the blackjack and every day in slave life is a day that colour red.  It soon come to pass when red no different from white or blue or nothing.  Two black legs spread wide and a mother mouth screaming.  A weak womb done kill one life to birth another.  A black baby wiggling in blood on the floor with skin darker than midnight but the greenest eyes anybody ever done see.  I goin’ call her Lilith.  You can call her what they call her.”

Admittedly, the quote above is a bit lengthy but WOW!  I can almost hear the author’s cadence as I read and feel the character’s energy seeping from the page.  It’s no secret that I believe a strong opening is an indication of a great novel.  My theory has so far proven true with this text.  I initially planned to read only the first few paragraphs but 50 pages later, I was completely immersed in the world Marlon James created.

Needless to say, I’m pleasantly surprised with the author’s talent thus far.  I love the feeling of unexpectedly falling in love with a book . . .

http://www.huemanbookstore.com/book/9781594484360

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November 20, 2013 · 9:47 PM

The Bibliophile: What Kind Of Reader Are You?

We just read the Atlantic Wire’s “What Kind of Reader Are You?” and, after laughing at our own expense, finally come to terms with who we are as readers.  What kind of readers are The Afro-Librarians?

She, as a child, was a “Cross-Under Reader”.  She was often told that her reading selections were “too adult” but rebelled (If sneaking books into the house can be considered rebellion) by reading them anyway.  As an adult, she is classified as a “Chronological Reader” who has yet to find a method to her madness.

He is a classic “Book Buster”.  His home is filled with books and he takes pleasure in both his traditional and non-traditional bookshelves.  His love of books is physically evident as most of the books he owns are heavily underlined, highlighted and dog-eared.  Suffice it to say that he loves his books to death.

Check out the article and identify yourself.  What kind of reader are you?

http://m.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/08/what-kind-book-reader-are-you-diagnostics-guide/56337/

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October 22, 2013 · 9:35 AM

10 Great Opening Lines in Afro-Literature

Every great writer knows the importance of the opening text. Not only is it the author’s first shot at engaging the reader, it also sets the tone for the entire novel.  A truly great incipit, as evidenced by the examples below, will also foreshadow theme, structure, plot and even conflict.

Let’s face it, a strong opening is perhaps the best indication of a strong text.  So let’s take a look at a few of the most profound within the Afro-literary genre:

“On the morning of her ninth birthday, the day after Madame Francoise Derbane slapped her, Suzette peed on the rosebushes.” – Lalita Tademy, Cane River

“You better not never tell nobody but God.” – Alice Walker, The Color Purple

“We are on our way to Budapest: Bastard and Chipo and Godknows and Sbho and Stina and me.” – NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names

“A dwelling.” – Nuruddin Farah, From a Crooked Rib

“I was not sorry when my brother died.” – Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

“124 was spiteful.” – Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway.” – Zadie Smith, White Teeth

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish aboard.” – Zora Neal Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

“In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.” – Ben Okri, The Famished Road

“They say it came from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles.” – Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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