(Engl.: John Crow's Devil) Now available in a beautiful new German edition In his dark and mystical debut novel, the brilliant Marlon James explores th(Engl.: John Crow's Devil) Now available in a beautiful new German edition In his dark and mystical debut novel, the brilliant Marlon James explores the human longing for purpose and direction and the ways in which it can be perverted. Set in Jamaica in 1957, we witness the epic battle for the position of religious leader in a remote village: Hector Bligh (the "Rum Preacher"), an alcoholic who in the past has neglected his duties as a priest, faces off against the newly arrived Lucas York ("Apostle York"), a fanatic whose strict rules seem to provide order and whose cruelty is declared to be justified by God. Both men are haunted by their pasts, and at the core, the exorcisms they try to impose on the village are mainly directed against themselves. As usual, leaders need followers - who will the villagers side with?
Both Bligh and York have village women at their sides who, in search of salvation, join them in their fights. Many other villagers play important roles as well, as sinners, enforcers, and bystanders - it is easy to see parallels not only to other religious sects, but also to authoritarian and fascist regimes. The intense and haunting atmosphere is heightened by the depiction of sex and (sometimes self-inflicted) violence - there are lots of bodily fluids in this text, but none of these scenes are gratuitous, so I didn't mind.
On top of Christian religious theory and Jamaican witchcraft, James also employs elements of magical realism to illustrate the spiritual state of the village, especially in the form of birds who attack or fall from the skies. Which brings us to the theme of racism which also plays a role in the book: Not only do we repeatedly encounter magical "John Crows" - which, as I learnt, is the common name for a black vulture in Jamaica, but which also reminded me of "Jim Crow" -, but there is also a lot of black/white symbolism, most strikingly in the white dress of York, the outsider who aims to bring the village under his control.
In the story, James also writes about homosexuality as being perceived as a shameful sin - this is particularly painful to read if you know that Jamaican-born James left Kingston because of the discrimination he experienced as a gay man (here's an article James himself wrote about that: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/ma...).
All in all, this is an unsettling and exciting book that offers many layers of meaning. I can't wait to read James' upcoming book "Black Leopard, Red Wolf", and all German-speakers out there can now get the re-issue of James debut in an edgy new edition that reflects the darkness of the text....more
Finalist for the National Book Award 2019 Fuck the gods!, as the protagonist of this epic would put it, this clearly is a 5-star-read, and I don't evenFinalist for the National Book Award 2019 Fuck the gods!, as the protagonist of this epic would put it, this clearly is a 5-star-read, and I don't even like fantasy! James takes his readers to an ancient, otherwordly Africa, where themes of Greek and African mythology merge into a sprawling tale about the battles between different tribes and kingdoms, all of them with their own beliefs, powers, and cultures. We join our narrator Tracker, who possesses the gift of a heightened sense of smell, in the quest for a young boy -but the first sentences already give away the ending: "The child is dead. There is nothing left to know." The focus of this novel is on searching, and in more than one way.
In the central storyline of the book, Tracker joins a gang of characters who aim to find the mysterious boy for their powerful client - but at that point, they don't know who the boy really is and what they are getting themselves into. Among this illustrous group are a witch, a killer with superhuman strength, a magical buffalo, and of course Tracker's lover, the shape-shifting Leopard (and yes, Red Wolf is Tracker himself, but you have to find out why by reading the novel! :-)). The group roams the lands in search of the boy, encountering all kinds of people and creatures along the way.
Ultimately, angry and sensitive Tracker, who has no family, is searching for purpose, for meaning. He himself seems to be unsure whether he is good or even striving for what's good, but he clearly perceives the vacuousness in the hate and violence around him. He is lost and trying to be found - but by what? My guess is that this question may be central to the whole Dark Star Trilogy.
Another captivating aspect of the book is the way James adds more and more stories to that of Tracker: There are no shifting points of view, rather, other perspectives are revealed through storytelling. Yes, there are numerous stories the characters tell each other, thus creating a written text that heavily relies on oral traditions. The people choose to reveal themselves to Tracker, and often, they prove to be unreliable narrators, omitting important details or giving false Information. This narrative technique adds a lot of suspense to the overall story and depth to the characters.
On top of that, James shines with his inventive language - he manages to give his characters unique voices that do not only convey thoughts and information, but reflect the spirits of the speakers. In fact, I would claim that it's the characters who make this story so addictive: Sure, the chase for the boy is suspenseful and the narrative arc is very smart, but the fascinating, often contradictory personalities of Tracker, Leopard, Sadogo and the others are what glues the reader to this text.
Asked when the next installment of the trilogy will be published, James answered: "Well, my publisher thinks in two years." I really hope it won't take longer! :-)...more
"But a man can only move so far before leash pull him back. Before the master say, Enough of that shit, that's not where we going. The leash of Babylo"But a man can only move so far before leash pull him back. Before the master say, Enough of that shit, that's not where we going. The leash of Babylon, the leash of the police code, the leash of Gun Court, the leash of twenty-three families that run Jamaica."
Marlon James finds highly evocative ways to poetically untangle recent Jamaican history - this book is fictional, but it talks about real events. Putting the attempted assasination of Bob Marley right before a planned peace concert. At the narrative center, James creates a whole tornado of characters and language in order to display who had an interest in preventing peace and why, and what the consequences of these dynamics were.
In the 70's, Kingston has been dominated by gangs that were connected to political parties, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP). The gangs had built a whole system of repression and benefits to secure their respective rule, especially in their territories in Western Kingston:
"That's why neither the JLP nor the PNP fucking with the peace treaty. Peace can't happen when to much to gain at war. And who want peace anyway when all that mean is that you still poor?"
Not only was the CIA involved in Jamaican politics at the time, the two gangs also had one common enemy: The corrupt police:
"Babylon out to kill you whether you was an animal with stripes or spots."
And anyway, who can guarantee the people of Kingston that the police force will be able to provide a better order than the one created by the gangs?
"The second you say peace this and peace that, and let's talk about peace, is the second gunman put down their guns. But guess what, white boy. As soon as you put down your gun the policeman pull out his gun. Dangerous thing, peace."
Told in five parts with several chapters each, the story covers the 70's, 80's (during the crack wars), and 90's. The cast of characters as listed at the beginning of the novel contains 76 people, one of them being a ghost. The point of view changes in every chapter and, God help us all, large parts are told in Jamaican patois, some as a stream-of-consciousness, and one even in free-flowing verse. There is murder, violence, torture, fear, poverty, all kinds of drugs, corruption, straight and gay sex.
In the later parts, the story moves from Jamaica to the United States, where Jamaican crews connected to the Kingston gangs run a drug trade - it's the same war, just fought differently.
I just love James' wild imagination, how masterfully he manages to hold this wide-ranging story together, the cinematic descriptions, the well-drawn characters, and the way he employs narrative techniques. I wish he had taught at Macalester earlier, so I could have taken a class with him.
A well-deserved Booker win for Marlon James....more
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