Currently Reading

Reading: My Two Polish Grandfathers, by Witold Rybczynski.
Listening to: Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Mary Reviews: The Book of Night Women


James, Marlon. The Book of Night Women. (New York: Riverhead, 2009)

Lilith is born on a sugar plantation in the West Indies just before the turn of the 19th century. She believes that her green eyes, the legacy of a white father, prove that she is better than the other slaves, destined for a different life. She spends her youth and young adulthood pushing against a world that refuses to allow her to realize her limited dreams. Barred from the world of the white masters and mistrusted by slave society, she alternately suppresses and unleashes the anger, violence, and darkness within her.

A summary of this novel can sound trite and timeworn: The unspeakable treatment of slaves is set against the luxurious lifestyle of the masters. A forbidden love affair grows between Lilith and a white overseer. Rebellion is fomented by the Night Women, a group of female slaves.

However, nothing about this novel is what you might expect. The daily life of slaves -- hard work, tedium, horrific and random punishment -- is depicted in a way rarely seen in fiction. The thoughtless cruelty of the white ruling class stuns the reader at every turn. The captivating use of patois creates a strong and rhythmic narrative that holds up from the first page to the last.

The characters in this novel, whether white masters or kitchen slaves, are all too human. None is perfect, and it is difficult to root even for the protagonist, as the author follows her mental and emotional shifts from loyalty to cruelty, from obedience to treachery.

Moving swiftly, pulling the reader into a world of heat, hatred, and dreams of freedom, the novel can, at times, be hard to read, because of its relentless focus on the terror of slavery. It is well worth the effort, though, because this remarkable and disturbing book will change the way you look at the history of slavery in the Americas.

Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Highly recommended.

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