But one of the reasons why it’s a big novel is almost for the same reason you have something like a double album. Because I think — I hope, and so far some critics seem to agree with me and some critics don’t — that a bigger novel is a wider canvas to experiment with... I’m not sure why ambition is looked upon as a bad thing. - Marlon James*

I really like thinking of this novel as a double album. That works. Because it's big, really big, and ambitious, and has two separate but obviously connected parts.

The first part is 5 stars for me all the way. Jamaican politics, and its associated gangs, and Bob Marley, and the CIA, and fascinating characters like Papa Lo and Weeper, and culminating in the attempted assassination of Marley by a gang of ghetto gunmen, whose leader is operating out of several motives, personal and political. Marley, always referred to as the Singer, his fame just that encompassing, is ever present just off-stage, working to create a peace which is not in the interests of certain elements.

His ultimate inability leads to the second album, post Marley's terribly early death from cancer, and we lose the politics and the Singer and gain the Medellin cartel, crack cocaine, drug empires in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and, a bit oddly, graphic gay sex ("I do actually believe in explicit violence. I believe in explicit sex... There’s something to be read in the explicit scene.*). This album didn't interest me so much though I recognize the quality.

* - Guernica interview, https://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/violently-wrought/

---- In-Reading Comment ---
Brethren, what the bombocloth you mean calling this a brief history? Could have been done a lot briefer, but that's cool, it's real good. ( )

This book is about the politics of Jamaica, the attempted killing of Bob Marley,the drug wars in the 1990s in New York, and more. Told in many many voices with not much dialog. I made frequent use of the Cast of Characters list in the front of the book. Intelligently written. It felt like I was really inside the characters heads, more so than I have ever been in a book before. The Jamaican dialect was hard to get used to, but once I did I found myself thinking in that dialect, and almost trying to use some of the words in my own speech. The language in the book is rough, and there is a lot of violence. Considering the topic, it was all appropriate.
The book did bog down some in the middle, but I gave it 5 stars anyway because of how brilliantly it was written overall.This book will stay with me awhile. If you decide to read this, don't plan on reading it for long periods of time. I had to take breaks---focus and concentration are required! ( )

I can honestly say I did not find this book enjoyable, but it was written in the most amazing format and the author has an amazing talent.

This book was very well written, and if I had to base my ratings on how well the book was written, it would be 10 out of 5. When I was reading the book, the descriptions were magical and took me away to another world, and I could not believe the amount of detail one person could put into one single page. I was taken away into another world and I truly enjoyed the form of description. I rarely find authors these days with this amount of talent.

But, the book was not a topic I was fond of. I picked up the book and decided to enter for the contest on Goodreads to get it because it sounded like an amazing topic to learn about, but it ended up being too boring of a topic for me.

While the book was well written, I found it very hard to follow the story or know what was going on. In the first 100 pages, I found myself even wondering what the book was about anymore. This book felt more along the lines of a book I would be forced to read in High School with explanations by the teacher of what was actually going on, since I couldn't follow it.

I give it one star out of five, mainly because I was to bored to continue reading it. It was a forced read and I was bored out of my mind trying to finish it.

The book did give powerful messages and themes, and anybody who likes books that have powerful themes and messages and like books following true events but are in a fictional universe would love this book! It was just not for me.

I still cannot praise the author enough for his talent, but the book wasn't for me!!

Amazing book, not my type of read, sadly.

My book was an uncorrected advance proof (which I adore these types of books, so I was very honored to receive an advanced copy).

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. ( )

What can you say about this book? Well, it is a stunning novel, brilliantly written, not easy on the reader, but no matter. I highly recommend it. ( )

This book isn't one of the usual genres that I tend to read, but I did quite enjoy it. Wikipedia was my friend since I didn't know anything about Jamaica's political parties, rastas, or Bob Marley even. ( )