The Long Song

The best book I've read so far this year. Andrea Levy tells the story of the last years of Jamaican slavery and the first years of manumission with a piercing humor, sometimes gentle and humane and sometimes appropriately less so.

The story is framed by a successful Jamaican printer who encourages his mother, July, to write down the story of her life, largely because she is distracting him by constantly trying to tell it to him. Mostly she tells the story in the third person but periodically the novel returns to the first person, present tense -- the time she is writing it many years later. It begins with July's conception in the rape of her mother by the overseer. And the continuous narrative ends with an event even more cold hearted show more and brutal.

In between, it tells the story of July, a sly, witty slave who becomes a house slave and, after manumission, continues on as a house servant.

It is hard for me to capture just how compelling, well written, beautifully imagined, funny, and tragic the book is. So you should read it for yourself. show less

Miss July was born a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation. When she was a child, the English mistress took a liking to her and brought her from the fields into the house, forcibly separating July from her mother and insisting on calling her "Marguerite." July came of age serving the mistress, and made it through some very tumultuous times, including the Baptist Rebellion and later, the abolition of slavery. Now an old woman, July is living with her son and his family and sets to writing her story. That sentence alone tells you her life was an unusual one, and there are many details and plot twists the reader can look forward to in this novel.

I loved this book, and I loved July and her strong personality. Her survival was mostly due to show more pure cunning, mixed with a bit of luck. The people in her life -- both slaves and whites -- were well drawn, and Andrea Levy didn't shy away from the violent realities of slave treatment, the consequences of rebellion, and the tension once slaves were free but still expected to work on plantations.

This novel was shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize and is a worthy contender for that honor. show less

The Long Song is the story of July, a woman born into slavery in 19th century Jamaica.

As an old woman at the end of the century, July is writing the story of her early life, and the narrative switches between the present day of the novel (1898), in the first person, and the past.

Slavery officially ended in Jamaica in 1838, but of course the former slave owners still controlled the plantations and the economy, and the former slaves still needed to work in exploitative conditions for the white people who all too obviously regarded them as an inferior race.

The Long Song is beautifully written and I found it a very readable novel, perhaps deceptively so. Thinking about it again for review purposes makes me want to reread it again more show more carefully. I was carried along by the story, or stories, July tells – frequently she offers several different versions of what happened, usually a more romantic account followed by one which seems more rooted in the realities of the day.

July is separated from her mother, Kitty, as a child by a white woman who thinks she is cute but is repelled by Kitty. She is not the most obedient or loyal slave (or servant) – at first, she hopes that if she gets things wrong she will be returned to her mother, but she grows up into a woman who tries to stand up for herself. But in this time and place black women have very little power over their lives and her very entertaining attempts at self-assertion often have quite unpleasant results for July.

Some readers may find it hard to like any of the characters, even July – I liked her a lot sometimes and felt some sympathy for her anger at other times.

This is not a feelgood novel about black and white characters getting together to challenge racism. A lot of potential happy endings are briefly dangled in front of the reader before being snatched away. That made me feel angrier as a reader when bad things happened.

The shifts in narrative, tone and style of the book, and the alternative stories offered, make reading this novel a bit more challenging but I would argue that it rewards careful reading.

Recommended. show less

Such a magnificent piece of storytelling by gifted author, Andrea Levy. It speaks of the abuse and cruelty leading up to, through and after The Baptist War of Jamaica (1831/1832). But it also shares the tenderest of moments, shared sorrows and and dreams of hope. Levy's scene settings are cinematic as an aged woman (once a slave) recalls her life on that island. Her educated son struggles to keep a handle on her telling. So there are snippets of story which contradict (depending on whose telling you wish to believe). Levy has adopted Jamaican nomenclature which does take a bit of getting used to. But all in all, this was an excellent read and quite informative.

A former slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation writes the story of a former slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation. While the story is autobiographical, it's also clear that the writer is an unreliable narrator. She confesses to exaggeration at several points in her story. This is an exceptional book as far as technique goes, but I found it difficult to connect with the characters on an emotional level except for the field slave, Kitty, in her grief at the forced separation from her child. A strong undercurrent of anger runs throughout the book, and perhaps that accounts for my inability to connect with the characters. I felt angry on their behalf, but I didn't experience the empathy that occurs when a book's characters inhabit my heart show more and mind. show less

Darker than Small Island but still with powerful characters (few of whom are entirely sympathetic) and flashes of humour, particularly in the interactions between the novel's narrator, July, and her son Thomas Kinsman.

July is born into slavery on a Jamaican plantation in the 19th century. During her lifetime upheaval is followed by, and follows, the process of emancipation. The premise of the book is that she is writing down her life story at the urging of her son, now in the printing trade. The story is intermingled with her observations on the writing process, her son;'s observations on what she writes, and her opinions of her son's opinions. It's thus both her life story and the story of the telling of it, and this combination makes show more the novel special.

A great read, well-researched with sources cited in the afterword. It portrays the complexity of human relationships in this tragic and unfortunate period of history and shows how discrimination operates at many levels.

On writing this review, I was moved to read the 'foreword' (by Thomas, the son of the narrator) again. I recomend you do the same after reading the book. It makes so much more sense then. show less

It’s the case of too many endings. Thomas Kinsman, black professional man living in Jamaica in 1898, convinces his mother that she should write a book depicting her life as a house slave on a sugar cane plantation in that English island colony in the mid-1800’s. Surprisingly, his mother turns out a very accomplished, very polished book, complete with two separate endings. The prose is lovely, the narrative flows, the story is captivating and yet something fell flat.

Here’s the problem, and it happens too often to ignore. A writer writes a spectacular book. The Booker committee fails to notice or decides it isn’t worth the trouble, or it isn’t that author’s “turn”. The book goes on to notable success, both critical and show more popular. A few years later, the author produces another book and the Booker committee finally takes notice and decides now is the time for this author to snag a nomination. I think this is what happened to Andrea Levy. Her 2004 novel, “Small Island,” was a stunning book, filled with poetic prose that just made its narrative sing. The Booker committee failed to take notice. The book went on to huge critical success and popular appeal. They tried to right this wrong by nominating her 2009 novel, “The Long Song,” for the prestigious award but, unfortunately, this novel is no “Small Island.” Don’t get me wrong; it’s a good book. It’s not a great book. It’s not nearly as good as the author’s previous effort. This could also just be my problem. Levy set such a high bar after the publication of “Small Island” that maybe, for me, no book could live up to its predecessor.

At any rate, Miss July is a slave child, wrenched from her mother’s arms at the age of nine, to become the house slave/companion to Caroline Mortimer, sister to the sugar cane plantation owner. There’s a world of difference between a house slave and a field slave and Levy points up all the differences. We follow July’s life as she becomes a young woman and faces the violent confrontation between the landowners and the slaves, as they seek their freedom. The accompanying violence and abuse paints an ugly picture of all that was at stake:

“The overseer tossed the limp remains of this negro aside, like he was a piece of spent cane just stripped through the mill. The girl, bloodstained as a butchered hog, grabbed Dewar around his ankles to plead for her salvation. He seized her by a fistful of hair to hold her steady as he rearmed his pistol. ‘No massa, no, massa, mercy, massa, mercy,’ she struggled savagely. The overseer could hardly hold her. ‘Shut up, you dead…nigger, shut up.’ It was as the overseer raised his hand to strike her with his pistol that Kitty flew.”

Raw, human emotion fills the pages. Levy writes beautifully and the story is compelling, by any measure. Recommended especially for those readers who have not yet read “Small Island.” show less