A Brief History Of Seven Killings

Savage Times

The writing career of this year’s Man Booker prize winner Marlon James is a study in persistence. His first book was reportedly rejected by over seventy publishers. His third, A Brief History Of Seven Killings, bowled the judges over and was picked unanimously—the first time an author from Jamaica won this prize.

The extraordinary novel is spans three decades and uses the true story of the attempt on the life of reggae star Bob Marley (referred to only as “the singer”) as a peg to hang a probe into Jamaican society. The language moves from slang to formal sprinkled with so much swearing, that the author said in jest that he would not recommend readers gifting it to their mothers.

 James imagines the stories of the gangland shooters, and in the style of oral history has many people contributing to the vivid narrative—including a ghost.  It is as satisfying a book as it is tough to read. Right at the start its seventy-five characters are listed and the reader has to keep track and they swoop in and out, using their own distinctive patois. For instance, the evil criminal Josey Wales, says of his meeting with CIA agents, “I don’t tell him that yo tengo suficiente español para concocer que eres la más gran broma en Sudamérica. I chat to him bad like some bush naigger and ask dumb question like, So everybody in America have gun? What kinda bullet American fire? Why you don’t transfer Dirty Harry to the Jamaican branch? hee hee hee.” The book is a veritable babel of voices in settings that are brutally violent and call out comparisons to the films of Quentin Tarantino.

Jones encapsulates the nexus between organized crime and politics in 1970s Jamaica (a Mumbai reader would find parallels in the city, the way ghetto boys are attracted to crime); the attempt on Marley’s life was allegedly triggered by the 1976 election campaign, the most violent in the country’s history. The CIA, anti-Castro Cubans, Columbian drug cartels further muddied Jamaican waters.

It is an ambitious novel, well-researched, sharply observed and fearless; it challenges the reader to pick up all the strands and try to make sense of the chaos. It certainly won’t encourage anyone to book a Caribbean cruise!

A Brief History Of Seven Killings

By Marlon James

Publisher: Riverhead

Pages: 704