A Brief History of Seven Killings: A Novel

This novel is sweeping in its scope, telling the story of the violence in Jamaican politics, the death of Bob Marley and the rise of the Jamaican drug posses, all revealed in spurts and starts through the eyes of a disparate series of characters who come and go but who all leave an indelible mark on the novel. A history lesson told by an engaging ensemble cast on all sides of the crisis, from the jaded CIA operatives to the killers and the politicians that turned Jamaica into a bloodbath in the seventies an eighties, to the drug dealers that brought crack to inner city America. I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I break books down into those I should read and those I can't wait to read. After reading this I have to say it fills both catagories. The darkness That permeates the book is almost unremitting, but it's a darkness that sucks you in and spits you out at the end with a Wow. Well worth the read, I really couldn't put it down. It's undoubtedly the best book I have read so far this year, though there are a few scenes that I would like to erase from my memory, lol.

Really, really enjoyed this one. The only down side was it made me realize just how bad some of the more recent novels I read were...this one's special, interesting and contains hilarious slang. Read it now!

OMG. This book is amazing. In the beginning I was shocked at the rawness & the violence but got sucked right in. Marlon James is an incredible writer. The way he wove each storyline together was just magic. Though not for the faint of heart, I highly HIGHLY recommend a Brief History of Seven Killings to any serious reader. You'll definitely learn a thing or two from him.

704 pages. 76 characters. Brief history.
The novelist’s interviews revealed that he struggled to write everything through a single narrative. I also learned that he had to write this novel while staying far away from the actual scenes. Among all these unstructured attempts, one good thing I noticed was the listing of the characters right at the beginning. It helps to understand the plots, different locations, and the roles. The story broadly covers the locations of Jamaica, Florida of USA, and New York of USA.

Local. Urban. Jamaican English.
The book is full of text using Jamaican English. The English well used and well familiar to the people of Jamaica, others would struggle worldwide. That spiced up the novel quite a bit. It reminded me the writing style of Amitabh Ghosh in The Sea of Poppies, where he abundantly used the words picked up from Indian language, mostly Bengali and to some extent Hindi. It is always good to get some exposure to the English spoken in different parts of the world. That way, this book is quite interesting.

Killing. Killing. More killing.
The book in fact describes killing of more than seven persons. Most of the killing carries a graphically thorough narration. Most of the killings were done through gunshots. There were killings by burying alive, and burning alive too. That made me tired while reading through the book. There might be some historical connection to describe so many killings, but could have been avoided in the novel.

Start. Read. Continue reading.
Imagine you live in the far suburb of a large city. You commute to your work in the central part of the city by train. You bought this book and started reading it only when you are on the train commuting to work and back from work. At a decent reading pace, you would probably take 3 months or more to finish it off. The novel seems to be too long for urban readers.

I was already a fan of Marlon James, after reading Night Women, but I wasn't sure what to expect from this well reviewed, but apparently intense book. While this isn't a casual read, it is captivating and absorbing. The historical references and characters, familiar to me, took new life in James' hands.

Yes, there are multiple layers, unexpected turns, odd angles and the slang, which at times forms a new language. Some people might enjoy the audiobook more, as the context becomes clear when spoken. Moreover, the oral version had its own beauty and rhythm, reminiscent of excellent theatre.

Either way, this is literature worth experiencing.

Catches your attention from the beginning with the lyrical and expressive Jamaican patois. Smart, funny, raw, and horrific at the same time. You will come away thinking about the ghettos in Jamaica, or anywhere, differently after you read this book.

Great read! I now feel like I can understand reggae music lol. But seriously, this gives a great insight into Jamaican culture and what life was like in West Kingston during the 70's and 80's. The book was so well written that I was able to form an emotional connection with some of the characters and I celebrated their triumphs and mourned their losses. No lie, I shed a tear when Papa-Lo died.

7 killings was a difficult read. That said, it was worth the effort. It is a long book, written in a difficult to understand, for me, slang. The story was very good and kept my interest. The Characters are engaging and interesting. Set aside the time to read this book I think you will be glad you did.

A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize and, having read all the other candidates, I can say that there is no question that it deserved to win. But, it is not a book for everyone and I will do my best to explain why. The book is broken into 5 major sections spanning over 30 years. It is a novel about an unstable and terrifyingly dangerous time in Jamaican history. Chapters are told from the perspective of dozens of characters including gang members, CIA operatives, a Rolling Stone Journalist, an unemployed Jamaican woman, gang bosses, and even a ghost who interjects occasionally with reflections on death. James primarily relies on stream-of-consciousness to piece together the history of that time through the eyes of multiple narrators. The novel begins in 1976, the day before Bob Marley, his wife, and manager were shot in the singer’s home. The three survived the attack and James’ novel speculates on the events that lead up to the attempted murder and the aftermath. Through these events James takes us deep into the heart of the Jamaican ghettos in Kingston and immerses us in a world of gang violence, political maneuvering and corruption, and drugs.

So why was is it a challenging book? First off, it’s a long book at close to 700 pages and it begins with a 4-page, and much needed, “cast of characters.” So before you even crack open the narrative, you can tell it will be a complex book. The sheer number of characters is dizzying especially since many of them have gang names that are hard to keep straight in your head –like Heckle, Bam-Bam, Funky Chicken, Leggo Beast, Funnyboy, Buntin-Banton, Dishrag, and so on.

Second, the use of patois makes it hard to read. As I mentioned earlier, James uses stream of conscious style throughout and since so many of the characters are gang members, they use patois and slang that is initially hard to understand. As the novel progresses, you eventually get the hang of it but it is initially quite challenging and you should be warned that it is quite obscene. Take this exchange between Nina (an unemployed woman who hopes to use the singer to leave Jamaica) and two policemen:

Wee willie – cho r’asscloth.
Broke a heel. And the damn shoes was not cheap. S*** r’ass –
-Then hi, a way dis den ‘pin we? Coolie duppy?
-It h’are the pretty-heat coolie duppy h’eye h’ever see.

This is the typical dialogue you get for a majority of the book.

Finally, this book is VIOLENT! The title of the book will give you a clue that this book isn’t all puppies and roses, but the extent of the violence in all its forms (sexual, physical, and emotional) was at times very challenging to read. A LOT of people die in this book and often in very gruesome ways. Rape and sexual assault are frequent. So if you are sensitive to violence and graphic sexual descriptions, you may struggle with this book.

So, why the 4 stars? The book is truly stunning and highly ambitious – and the author is successful in what he sets out to achieve. It’s probably unlike anything else you will ever read and it is eye-opening in a terrifying way. James really immerses you in both the Jamaican ghetto and Jamaican politics in the late 1970s. He makes you live and breath this unstable and violent time. The novel is amazingly complex and highlights corruption and complicated relationships between gang leaders, government officials, and CIA operatives that existed at the time of this story. A Brief History of Seven Killings is based, in part, on real-life events. The Shower Posse ruled Jamaica in the 1960s and 70s and spread their influence to the US in the 1980s through drug trafficking – controlling much of the crack cocaine supply in New York and Miami (this is covered in the later half of the book). Furthermore, the political rivalry was very much a fact in Jamaica in the 1970s along with the use of gangs by politicians for their own political gain.

I have a hard time with violence in books and this was probably one of the most violent books I’ve ever read. But, the violence and obscenity serves a purpose. Interestingly, as awful as many of the narrators are, they are that way because of circumstances that existed before they were born and that are reinforced by sociopolitical and economic factors. At times you find yourself horrified by a sensation of empathy for certain characters. One minute you are rooting for them and the next minute they are committing horrendous acts. Some of the dialogue is even quite funny and as the reader you find yourself questioning what is wrong with you since you are laughing at some awful things.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone for the points I mentioned earlier. If you are very sensitive to things like violence, graphic sexual descriptions, and obscene language you will have a hard time with the book. But, if you can tolerate those things then A Brief History of Seven Killings is a fascinating and difficult read that will stay with you for a long time.

Very long story covering the political, social, economic, criminal, and musical fabric of Jamaica from 1976 to 1985. Some chapters written in local dialect with some sentences virtually impossible to decipher, but fun to read just the same. An eye-opener from start to finish, and worth the effort.

Complex, disgusting, cringingly spellbinding and genius writing. You want to stop reading because you are appalled and disgusted but cannot stop reading. The exhale at the end by the lone female character is just pure genius. I am now forced to read the other works of Mr James

Marlon James is one of the most powerful authors ever. His characters are dynamic and it is easy to become invested in their stories. I highly recommend this book. Next up on my reading list: The Book of Night Women, another highly acclaimed book by James.

This novel is not brief, but it's certainly never boring. It's exceptional and each character is interesting. It's graphic and at times vulgar, but it's also authentic to the characters. And Marlon James injects enough humor to give you a breather when things get too intense. I'm really hoping that it gets turned into a movie...Scorsese, Spike Lee, I'm talking to you.

Engrossing
Some of the best characters ever written
At times tough to follow but so worth it when the story circles back and self explains the very things you are not sure you understood...(hope that makes sense)

When New York Times Michiko Kakutani described A Brief History of Seven Killings as “epic in every sense of that word,” I thought my reaction would be similar to Dr. Johnson’s response to another epic, Paradise Lost: “None could have wished it a word longer.” Coming in at just under seven hundred pages with a cast of at least seventy-six named characters from the laconic Josey Wales to the inscrutable Nina Burgess, A Brief History of Seven Killings spans three decades of Jamaican history during the post-independence era.

While A Brief History of Seven Killings could be reduced to the chronicle of Rolling Stone journalist, Alex Pierce, who stumbles on to information about the assassination of Bob Marley, which puts his own life in danger, that would be only one of the plots. And such a reductionist view would be a grave injustice to this monumental work. For Marlon James is updating many of the questions raised in Jamaican classics such as Brother Man, an exploration of the influence of Rastafari; Voices Under the Window, which captured the race, class, and colour conflicts of Jamaican culture, and The Children of Sisyphus, a Dantesque vision of a Jamaican ghetto.

James is also asking questions that affect the life of every Jamaican at home and abroad: Why was the CIA involved in the destabilization of the Jamaican government from 1972-79? Why did the peace movement fall apart? Why would anyone try to kill the famed prophet of reggae and Rastafari? Only a writer with the prodigious talent and assiduous attention to the craft of storytelling that Mr. James possesses could have attempted such an ambitious project and created this spellbinding narrative. As someone who lived through those turbulent times and who is knowledgeable about the facts, rumors, and half-truths about the attempted assassination, I was impressed not only by James’s approach, but also with his treatment of the events surrounding December 3, 1976.

Perhaps, the most intriguing aspect of this novel is the shift in perspectives. Just when I thought I knew a character such as Josey Wales, the brutal leader of the Storm posse, I found myself in the middle of a tender scene between him and his son: “I smile with the boy so that he don’t feel like I threatening him too much, but he is sixteen now, and I still remember sixteen, so I know the hunger growing in him. All this talking back is moving from a little cute to a little threat. Part of it sweet me, seeing this little s*** puff him chest out.” Or another killer, Weeper, who reads books such as Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy and will not hesitate to murder and maim, yet still finds time to enjoy moments with his lover: “He thinking I going to be the one to look away first, but I not going look away and I not going to even blink.”

A Brief History of Seven Killings, which was dubbed the “Great Jamaican Novel” by Fader, has rightly earned this title. For even after six hundred and eighty eight pages, I was still concerned about the fates of Alex Pierce and the enigmatic changeling, Nina Burgess. Or whatever she calls herself these days.

There were great moments and then there were times I felt things stretched longer than need be. At certain points I was unable to make the connection. It could have easily been broken into two separate novels.

The story is told from many different perspectives, which can be confusing at times to follow. Overall, very interesting discovering how the different stories come together to fictionalize well known historical events.

An existential masterpiece as complex as life itself. I have still to understand much of the Jamacan vocabulary and lost my way in the multitude of characters. Marlon James makes no compromises: sink or swim.

This is an excellent read.Intense and captivates you at every turn,sadly,this is a true story for many in the inner city and ghettos in Jamaica. This is a riveting story,deserving of the pulitzer prize,an excellent writer and a great read!

An outstanding book that despite its length and multitude of characters kept my interest until the end. I made ample use of the descriptive list of characters at the front of the book, but maybe I'm just getting old. The political conflict that surrounds the assassination attempt on the Singer (Bob Marley) might be a little confusing to someone who knows nothing about the politics of Jamaica. A little knowledge of Jamaica's recent history I think makes the book far more engaging. The level of violence may bother the squeamish; the level of explicit gay sex might not be for the prudish. Those of James's age who automatically get all the pop cultural references will be delighted. Overall, I think James did a great job!

Felt like a history lesson on Jamaica. Not sure how much is true but if it no go so it maybe close.
Sometimes a bit disjounted and hard to follow. Still don't know who was pushed off the balcony. Might recommend it in the end.

This is a challenging and complex book. It is probably enough to cure you from ever wanting to go to Jamaica because of the violence and poverty the author so aptly describes. Each chapter is in the first person, but of alternating characters. One of the challenges is deciphering the patois of many of the characters. The other great challenge is keeping track of the many characters in the book. That said, I found myself completely absorbed by this long and gritty story. The author has a way of gripping his readers attention and pulling them into the life and times of many Jamaicans. I found myself pronouncing many of the patois sentences aloud so I could understand what the characters were saying. Once I started the book, I had a very hard time putting it down. It centers on the poor slums of Jamaica, the role of Bob Marley, (called only The Singer), his music, and the gangs that played such a huge role in the twentieth century history of the island. It also describes the life of Jamaicans who fled to the United States and how they truly left the island at all. There is a good deal of violence in the book. If you are offended by graphic violence, even though it propels the story, this isn't the book for you. If you want to glimpse at a world you don't know much about, this book is so good, so well written, and so compelling, you won't be able to put it down. No wonder it won the Mann Booker prize.