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A Brief History Of Seven Killings - Marlon James

ringo

ringo

Macaroni cheese controller
Worth a thread of its own for anyone who wants to tie in characters in the book with the real story.

The Singer is obviously Bob marley.

Copenhagen City is Tivoli Gardens, Kingston.

Eight Lanes - Probably Matthews Lane, an area loyal to the PNP (Peoples National Party).

Papa Lo is Claudie Massop, founding member of the Shower Posse and area don of Tivoli Gardens, an area loyal to the Jamaican Labour Party.

Shotta Sherriff is Aston 'Bucky Marshall' Thompson, area don of Matthews Lane.

Josey Wales is based on Jim Brown (born Lester Lloyd Coke), who succeeded Massop after his murder.

Josey's son is based on Dudus (Born Christopher Michael Coke), who took over after his father's murder. He was all over the news when he was arrested on drug charges and extradited to the US in 2010.

Storm Posse = The Shower Posse. Claude Massop and Vivian Blake founded the gang in Jamaica and Vivian Blake became its leader in New York. They took over transportation in the cocaine trade for Pablo Escobar from the Caribbean to America.

Rawhide is Keith 'Trinity' Gardner, a notoriously violent policeman who went on to become assistant commissioner of police and retired after 40 years service.

Copper is Dennis 'Copper' Barth, considered by some to be the originator of the Jamaican area don style of gang organisation.

Alex Pierce is very loosely based on writer/director Cameron Crowe, who was a journalist in Kingston at the time of Marley's shooting.

The best non-fiction book about the political violence and drug trade is Born Fi Dead: A Journey Through The Jamaican Posse Underworld by Laurie Gunst

Worth a look for slightly different reasons is Shower Posse by Duane Blake, notable for being written by a family member of the possee and including much self-aggrandizement and glorification of their violent deeds.

Bucky Marshall, Bob Marley and Claudie Massop organising the One Love Concert:
bob-claude-tek-life.png


18k3na3oi6yqpjpg.jpg
 
The author was on Artsnight the other week and seemed great. My partner turned to me and said "you are blatantly going to read that, aren't you?" :D.

I like the idea of the Marley assassination attempt being a point in time that lead to the next few decades of Jamaican history...

Also recommend Born Fi Dead, obviously. Might have to read that again too.
 
Fozzie Bear said:
The author was on Artsnight the other week and seemed great. My partner turned to me and said "you are blatantly going to read that, aren't you?" :D.

I like the idea of the Marley assassination attempt being a point in time that lead to the next few decades of Jamaican history...

Also recommend Born Fi Dead, obviously. Might have to read that again too.
Click to expand...
What's artsnight on ?
 
Author was on BBC breakfast this morning, he hadn't been to bed yet after winning the prize last night, he seemed in much better nick than I would have been!
 
How does one look at rankings on Amazon? It will be mildly interesting to see how many places he leaps during today :thumbs:
 
Thanks for the userful information on the characters ringo

Marlon James can certainly write. I am only 50 pages in, but the violence already made me vince.

I know I am going to struggle though because (1) I know nothing about history of Jamaica and (2) because he narrates the story partly in Jamaican patois.

I might be stupid, but how can you just go with the flow when you come across:

Now JLP want the country back and there's no word named can't, there's no word named no. - you what?

No, boss, that is con man business, me nah pay that. And how you fi do the I so? - I get the 1st sentence, what does the 2nd sentence say?

I wish the book came with translations for stupid foreigners. :oops:
 
Yes I wondered how easy it would be without some patois.

The JLP line means the JLP will not be stopped. Nobody can tell them they can't win the election, or say no to their ambition. They won't take no for an answer.

How can you treat me so?
Rastafari speech adopts a change of language which exchanges any part of the word which sounds negative to a positive, and a third person plural approach to I, so they themselves become The I, I and I, or we.
 
Just finished reading this, what an epic! Really enjoyed this book although it's quite gruelling at times. I'm going to re-read Born Fi Dead now. :cool:
 
ringo :cool:

See, those are important things.

I might come back here to ask for a few more translations.

So far, I like how he goes for short sentences because you remember them longer and how he repeats things so it feels like you are reading prose poetry.

Short sentences:
Woman breed baby, but man can only make Frankestein.
Me want all of you to fuck the ground good.

Repeats:
listen to me
her mother possibly raped
 
Orang Utan said:
Sounds like he's the Jamaican David Peace
Click to expand...

A bit, but more like James Ellroy. If you've read American Tabloid its a similar style of historical based fiction. There's also a great deal of the more traditional Jamaican prose style though, including a lot of folk proverb and old testamant style metaphor.

What I love about Jamaican speech, writing and particularly singing and toasting is the creativity of expression to convey meaning in an original way. Why say "hey, don't hassle me" when you can say "cho, pressure slide". If you give a man a book don't say "I'd like you to have this book", say "Yes I, control this".
 
little_legs said:
Just remembered something I forgot to ask yesterday, when the characters say Syrian, what/who do they mean?
Click to expand...

There has been a pretty large migration of people from the Levant to Jamaica over the last 100 years, mostly from Lebanon and Syria, and they are all just called Syrians. Many started running stores so they are known as Jamaica's shop keepers, much like the English used to refer to people from Pakistan running corner shops.
 
Well, that was stunningly good. Took a while to really get into each of the voices, which isn't easy to do when your only reading time is on the bus to and from work. It does need to be properly sat down with and buried into. Once I'd done that, I whipped through it. A fascinating history, magnificently told.
 
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belboid said:
Well, that was stunningly good. Took a while to really get into each of the voices, which isn't easy to do when you're only reading time is on the bus to and from work. It does need to be properly sat down with and buried into. Once I'd done that, I whipped through it. A fascinating history, magnificently told.
Click to expand...

Yes, I imagine it would be a less enjoyable read over a long period, more so if you weren't already familiar with the history. It benefits from total immersion.
 
ringo said:
Yes, I imagine it would be a less enjoyable read over a long period, more so if you weren't already familiar with the history. It benefits from total immersion.
Click to expand...
I think I knew more of the history than I realised. Kept thinking the JLP and PNP should be the other way round (as Labor's generally tend to be more left than National's), and hadn't realised the extent to which the parties were tied up in the gang culture. What a place.
 
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