What we’re introduced to in the novel is a teenage slave named Lillith who was fathered by the former master of the plantation. I imagine it took Marlon James little work to make the book so contemporary despite its being set in turn of the 19th century Jamaica. What is perhaps most haunting about the novel is that it is still so relevant to today’s issues. I will touch on it with some thoughts from Nietzsche on revenge, but that’s about it.įirst and foremost, The Book of Night Women is about slavery. I can talk in theory about this, but it’s humbling to sit down and write about a subject I have no business involving myself in. Much of The Book of Night Women deals with blackness and approaches to dealing with oppressors in a system they perpetuate. And to clear the air, I’m not sure how I feel about reviewing this as a 25 year old straight white guy. It possibly falls short only its spending a few moments to explain things that I wasn’t sure needed to be explained, but that’s not really anything I’m going to hold against a book that much unless it just does it entirely too often. I will be straightforward: I don’t think The Book of Night Women is on the same level that A Brief History of Seven Killings is on, it is still a remarkably good book that, like A Brief History, challenges its reader in a variety of ways.
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