A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James

Published by Oneworld Publications: Great Britain, 2015 (2014).

This book killed my attempt at the Bookerworm for some time. Another book with a promising beginning, Seven Killings opens in Jamaica, employing a sentence structure that accurately reflects the speech pattern of the locals, and draws me in. The early parts of the book, which talk about gang troubles in Kingston and life in the slums during the time of Bob Marley’s rising popularity are very interesting, but as with so many of the books I’ve read in this project, the story begins to lose its focus in the latter parts of the book, switching its focus to New York and honing in on various homosexual encounters. If these encounters were helping to advance the plot I could understand their appearance in the book, but Seven Killings seems to become less worried about plot as the story continues and more worried about describing the sordid details of the lives of characters that have until that time been very background.

Two books in a row that have been so explicit and unpleasant stop me in my tracks. For a long time I don’t pick up another Booker Book. Do I really want to continue to expose myself to stuff I really don’t feel is helping me?

Completed 15 May 2018.

Previous Book ~ Next Book


(Bookerworm)


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