With The Book of Night Women (2009), we’ve now gone through Marlon James‘ entire corpus (see John Crow’s Devil, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and Black Leopard, Red Wolf).
The Book of Night Women is the most explicit, direct, and difficult of them all. Parts of Black Leopard, Red Wolf are its equal along those dimensions, but are cloaked in a layer of parable that eases the reader along. The Book of Night Women is not an easy read, and at times not a pleasant read, but it is a marvelous read.
The novel centers on resistance. Specifically, acts of resistance by enslaved people on a Jamaican plantation focused on the protagonist, who is a remarkably complex character, consistently undermining her own behavior and, yes, resisting the offers of support available to her. That is a fantastic authorial choice: she is a comprised character in a horrific situation, constantly exposing herself to risk and harm above and beyond what is necessary.
But that raises an immediate question: is there anything beyond being enslaved? Once another has total agency over your body, your life, what is the meaning of additional risk? James’ answer is ambiguous: his descriptions of whippings and beatings are monstrous and impactful, and carry–for me–perhaps the most honest depictions of the depravity and arbitrary nature of plantation violence I’ve encountered.
If you’re up for it, highly recommended. Especially if you’re looking for something to deepen your understanding of methodologies of resistance, and their cost.