A Brief History of Seven Killings in ManBookering

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A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James

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2015 Longlist [MBP]

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
By Maxwell · 10 posts · 154 views

last updated Sep 13, 2016 12:44PM

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
By Maxwell · 24 posts · 238 views

last updated Mar 09, 2016 08:58PM

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What Members Thought

Sep 15, 2015 Maxwell rated it really liked it

Shelves: black-authors

What an extraordinary novel. Truly unique, expertly written, and masterfully crafted. It's complex and full of a wide range of narrative voices--from gang leaders to journalists, Jamaican girls and even a dead man. James has created something that I think will stand the test of time.

My only issue with the story was that, for me, it lacked the emotional punch that I expected. While I was always interested in the characters' stories, I felt removed from them. I learned a lot about Jamaican politic ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Apr 07, 2014 AmberBug *shelfnotes com* rated it really liked it

Shelves: tob2015, 2014, bookeraward

www.shelfnotes.com Review

Dear Reader,

-What the bombocloth this is?

-A review of this book called "A Brief History of Seven Killings"

-What kinda batty boy business is dat?

-I can assure you, I'm not a batty boy. Although, before reading this book I would have had no idea what that even meant.

-Who the r'asscloth-you-talking-to?

-The readers, they want to know how the book was and if they should read it.

-Tell dem is no business of dem. This too big for you.

-Excuse me? Too big? Now THAT is a challenge, ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2015 Lulu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: general-mainstream, award-winner, favourites, literary-fiction, books-read-in-2016

I finished this book a few hours ago, and have hesitated on setting it as "Read" on here since then. I have some dilemmas: for one, I want to say so much about this book. For two, I have no idea what I want to say. I also didn't want to just rate and say nothing, because I loved this book, and felt it deserved more from me. This isn't so much a review as some thoughts I can gather together.

This book was fantastic. Really. And while this isn't a review of the audio itself, I will say it's one of ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Sep 15, 2015 Chris Blocker rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: booker

Let me start by saying this is one of the most misleading titles I've come across in my many years of reading. No, this is the most misleading title. First of all, there is nothing brief about A Brief History of Seven Killings. It is brief compared to Infinite Jest or War and Peace perhaps, but not by much. Not only is this a long book, but the language and structure make it feel much longer than its nearly 700 pages. Secondly, seven killings? I just know that someday someone is going to count e Let me start by saying this is one of the most misleading titles I've come across in my many years of reading. No, this is the most misleading title. First of all, there is nothing brief about A Brief History of Seven Killings. It is brief compared to Infinite Jest or War and Peace perhaps, but not by much. Not only is this a long book, but the language and structure make it feel much longer than its nearly 700 pages. Secondly, seven killings? I just know that someday someone is going to count every killing in this book and that number is going to be way more than seven. I'm tempted to do it myself, but I know I'd hate myself afterwards for actually taking the time. I'd guess that if you added up every killing mentioned, whether it be in the primary plot or in backstory, there would be closer to 150. So yeah, a brief history of seven killings, my ass.

Ironically, the title's inaccuracies highlight the two qualms I had with this book. First, that it seems unnecessarily long. This is especially true in the first half. Once the rhythm is established, the characters solidified, and the patois is deciphered, A Brief History... takes off, but it still seems longer than necessary. The second issue I had was that it was much too violent for my tastes. Sure, we're talking about some Big Don/Mafioso kind of story here, so it's expected, but my anabaptist sensibilities can only handle so much rape, dismemberment, and explosion of faces. I don't watch Tarantino films or subscribe to HBO for a reason; if this book were adapted for film I would not watch it.

Length and personal feelings about violence aside, A Brief History of Seven Killings isn't a bad novel at all. Its greatest strength surely rests in its skillful implementation of voice. Many characters are given time to tell their respective story in these pages, and Marlon James nails each. At first, it may be difficult for the reader to follow the Jamaican verbiage and the stream of conscious pattern some of the characters use, but stick with it and you will be greatly rewarded. From CIA agents to drug-addicted thugs, from kingpin of the mob to a journalist who knows 鈥渢he real Jamaica,鈥� James expertly gets into these characters brains and makes their words resonate. I'd have liked to have heard more from the victims and more from female characters, but I suspect the author had his reasons for only skimming the surface in regards to these perspectives. Even though this story mostly focuses on the powerful, there is plenty of pain in this novel; everybody hurts sometimes, even heartless killers.

Like the dialogue and the characters, the story is all over the place. It spans decades and places and subplots. Like much of this novel, if you stick with it, it mostly pays off in the end. I guess that's the briefest possible way I can sum up this novel: it's challenging, but it largely pays off if you persevere.

Of the three Man Booker finalists I have read so far, this is my favorite. I don't think it has quite the magnitude and appeal required of the winner (I'm hoping one of the other three I have yet to finish show that), but it is a worthy finalist. Certainly, Marlon James is an author I will return to and one that will probably be up for many awards throughout his career.

__
One question I have, more as a footnote, is why write a book about a famous person, make it obvious whom you're writing about, but never mention the person by name? Referring to Bob Marley always as The Singer was slightly irritating. Other real people were mentioned in this book, people who are still alive and have more power than Marley had, and James said more slanderous things about them, so it doesn't seem he did so to protect himself. Is The Singer some kind of homage to Marley? Personally, I didn't like it. At least not in the dialogue. The Singer this, and The Singer that. I would've been like, What bomboclot singer are you pussyholes talking about? (Oh yeah, you'll definitely pick up some Jamaican slang if you read this novel.) ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2015 Molly rated it it was amazing

Brilliant. Wrenching. See this review by Jeremy:
/review/show...
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A Brief History of Seven Killings is a big sprawling novel of the first order, and all the more remarkable considering that the entire book is narrated in a stunning panoply of different voices. James has that rarest of qualities in a good fiction writer: he is an absolute master of the human voice (or in this case voices). Whether he's depicting ghetto hoodlum enforcers, dead politicians, drug king-pins, Brilliant. Wrenching. See this review by Jeremy:
/review/show...
~~
A Brief History of Seven Killings is a big sprawling novel of the first order, and all the more remarkable considering that the entire book is narrated in a stunning panoply of different voices. James has that rarest of qualities in a good fiction writer: he is an absolute master of the human voice (or in this case voices). Whether he's depicting ghetto hoodlum enforcers, dead politicians, drug king-pins, sleazy journalists, cynical CIA operatives or the miserable people caught between them, every character in this book shines a whip-smart perspective on the sad plight of Jamaica and its expatriates in the last 40 years.

James's depiction of his native country is beyond pitiless. The catalog of grinding poverty, murder, police brutality, sexual assault, militant homophobia and rampant misogyny that James evokes would make even George R.R. Martin wince. Most writers could make an entire novel out of one instance of the casual cruelty that James catalogs in this book. 'A Brief History...' is a brutal antidote to the rasta & ganja & reggae image that Jamaica has lived with for the last 40 years. Even though it's ostensibly focused around an assassination attempt on Bob Marley in 1976, James knows how to set something big and important revolving at the center of the action without having the novel be completely "about" that center.

The voices in this book creep and slither through the dark underbelly of a marginalized Caribbean torn apart by political thuggery, gang violence, cold-war scheming and drug trafficking. And ultimately the whole thing comes home to roost in crack epidemic era new york.

Marlon James comes out of the tradition of writers like Roberto Bolano, William Gaddis, and William Faulkner: he reveals a dense, mostly ignored history (really, a whole world) from the western hemisphere with a ventriloquists command for the human voice. This is a stunning evocation of the shadow history behind one of the most seemingly banal images and icons of popular culture, told by a completely masterful writer. A Brief History of Seven Killings is a big, powerfully written and hugely ambitious novel.I can't recommend it highly enough.
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...more

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Oct 01, 2014 Nadine in California rated it it was amazing

After closing the book I'm feeling 4 stars, but I know that looking back it will rise to 5, so why wait. This is a brutal book about a brutal lives, made ultra readable and compelling thanks to a large cast of fascinating characters, much wit, and James' astounding ability to juggle a thousand plot points and weave them together in a way that keeps everything clear and moving along. Chapters are mostly very short, and narrated by a handful of major characters - you get to know each of them not o ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 03, 2014 SibylM rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction

The best book I've read in 2015. I think it will end up in my all-time favorites. Until I read this book, I was dithering over whether Fates and Furies, A Little Life, or Lila was my favorite book of the year, but A Brief History of Seven Killings gripped me and blew my mind like nothing else I've read so far in 2015. This book is long (which I love), violent (which I don't ordinarily love, but it didn't put me off), and written from the perspective of many different characters, a lot of whom sp ...more

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Jul 08, 2014 Devin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Many characters in this novel like to comment on how irony and sarcasm doesn't play in Jamaican culture. So says the author who put the word "brief" in the title of this hefty tome.

There are many, many characters in this novel. Perhaps too many. Each has a distinctive voice and Marlon James certainly knows how to give his characters strong voices. Much of this is beautifully written with frequent bursts of brutal violence. It is exceptionally well written from moment to moment, from scene to sce ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 29, 2015 Kelly rated it really liked it

My main impression from reading this book was how strongly it reminded me of the TV show The Wire, except for being set in Jamaica (and that whole subplot about Bob Marley, obviously). The graphic violence, sex, language and drug use were all pretty similar between the two, and if anything Marlon James deserves more credit for being able to make me cringe at a page just as much as I did when presented with TV footage.

Honestly, I'm not giving this book 4 stars because I really liked it. It was a ...more

1 like · Like · see review