Good, but not as good as I had hoped
3 stars
I really do need to stop reading Booker prize winners because I am so often underwhelmed by them after having high hopes and that is especially true of this book! A Brief History Of Seven Killings is anything but brief so that had me a little intimidated before I even began, however I did give it a try and would say, for me, it was ok. I'm not sure this book really rewarded the hours I spent reading it though.
The novel has several lead characters each of whom narrate their own chapters and I didn't feel that they all had distinct enough voices to warrant this so I kept losing track of whose story was being added to. Sometimes this mattered, sometimes it didn't. I felt the earlier sections actually set in Jamaica were stronger as there was more of a sense of purpose and structure. James doesn't move …
I really do need to stop reading Booker prize winners because I am so often underwhelmed by them after having high hopes and that is especially true of this book! A Brief History Of Seven Killings is anything but brief so that had me a little intimidated before I even began, however I did give it a try and would say, for me, it was ok. I'm not sure this book really rewarded the hours I spent reading it though.
The novel has several lead characters each of whom narrate their own chapters and I didn't feel that they all had distinct enough voices to warrant this so I kept losing track of whose story was being added to. Sometimes this mattered, sometimes it didn't. I felt the earlier sections actually set in Jamaica were stronger as there was more of a sense of purpose and structure. James doesn't move any scene forward quickly though which I found irritating. Even gun battles seemed so drawn out by repetitive dialogue that they lost dynamism. I would have liked more background and far less chat. There is a lot of macho posturing!
I do think I have come away from reading A Brief History with more understanding of the political power-play in 1970s Jamaica. I don't know to what extent James' detail is true, but assume the overall picture to be fairly accurate as I understand significant research was done. It would be interesting now to read further factual books of the era.
