A Brief History of Seven Killings

The seven narrators of this Man Booker Prize-winning novel set the stage for a complicated, lengthy narrative that depicts Jamaica's changing cultural climate from the late 1970s to the 1990s. The vivid, sometimes gruesome, details recounted by various characters such as journalists, drug lords, and a Jamaican caregiver are believably narrated with American and Jamaican accents. Most of the narrators' patois is thick, raw, and rich with texture. One narrator portrays an American who imitates a Caribbean accent, which adds a humorously painful aspect to the story. Yet the undercurrent of unrest in the characters' personal lives is palpable in the performances. Overall, the ensemble of voices enhances an uncomfortable venture into a dangerous world. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Starred review from July 14, 2014
There are many more than seven killings in James’s (Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner for The Book of Night Women) epic chronicle of Jamaica’s turbulent past, but the centerpiece is the attempted assassination of Bob Marley on December 3, 1976. Through more than a dozen voices, that event is portrayed as the inevitable climax of a country shaken by gangs, poverty, and corruption. Even as the sweeping narrative continues into 1990s New York, the ripples of Jamaica’s violence are still felt by those who survived. James’s frenetic, jolting narrative is populated by government agents, ex-girlfriends, prisoners, gang members, journalists, and even ghosts. Memorable characters (and there are several) include John-John K, a hit man who is very good at his job; Papa-Lo, don of the Copenhagen City district of Kingston; and Josey Wales, who begins as Papa-Lo’s head enforcer but ends up being a major string-puller in the country’s most fateful events. Much of the conflict centers on the political rivalry of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP), which involves everyone from the CIA (which comes off as perennially paranoid about “isms,” namely communism) to the lowest Jamaican gang foot soldier. The massive scope enables James to build an incredible, total history: Nina Burgess, who starts the book as a receptionist in Kingston and ends as a student nurse in the Bronx, inhabits four different identities over the course of 15 years. She is undoubtedly one of this year’s great characters. Upon finishing, the reader will have completed an indispensable and essential history of Jamaica’s troubled years. This novel should be required reading.