The Last Warner Woman

December 19, 2011
Beautifully imaginative and structurally inventive, Miller’s second novel (after The Same Earth) tells the story of Adamine Bustamante, an orphan raised in a leper colony in Spanish Town, Jamaica, whose gift of “warning” leads her to join the Revivalist Church. When Adamine immigrates to England in search of a better life, she is locked up in a mental asylum for preaching her doomsday views. Years later, released from the institution, she meets “Mr. Writer Man,” a young author interested in telling her story. Miller’s narrative alternates between Adamine’s first-person account, told in a colorful and soul-baring patois, and sections recounted, mostly in the third person, by Mr. Writer Man. The two viewpoints at times conflict in illuminating ways, but Mr. Writer Man’s reflections on truth, history, and literature pale next to the plot’s more immediate concerns: spirituality, violence against women, and migration, to name a few. Miller’s talents as a storyteller come to the fore in the book’s climactic final chapters, when previously withheld plot details are revealed, tying the book together. The challenge for the reader is to get through the opening chapters, whose leaps in time and shifts in point of view slow the story. But it’s worth the effort.

February 15, 2012

Born in one of Jamaica's last leper colonies, Adamine Bustamente is raised by Mother Lazurus before leaving for England, where she is met with fear when she shares her gift of warning. Now older, she seeks to tell her story to "Mr. Writer Man," for no one person ever owns a story or has the right to tell it. Prize-winning Jamaican author Miller (The Same Earth)--wonderfully weaving together realism and fantasy as he shares the story of Mr. Mac, the taxi driver, or Adamine's stubborn yet loving grandmother--shows us that magic is inherent in humanity. Each character is portrayed as a real person, not someone to be forgotten as we move on to the next. Perhaps Miller's greatest feat is the incorporation of the decorous yet often unused second person; sparingly used, it draws in the audience and demonstrates the special relationship between Adamine and Mr. Writer Man as well as the relationship between Miller and his readers. VERDICT This poetic and enchanting work will appeal to readers of Caribbean literature and literary fiction.--Ashanti White, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro

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