The Book of Night Women

Marlon Brown’s latest novel takes us inside the rebellious hearts and minds of the enslaved Jamaicans and Africans on the Montpelier plantation.  His story centers around the women who plot and plan the destruction of the plantation system.

A green-eyed girl child is born in the dark of night and immediately becomes an object of fear and jealousy.  Her mother died birthing her and no one stepped up to take her. They would have rather left her in the bush to die. The headman gives her to a strange couple to raise and Lilith, as she is called, begins her life.

James uses the language and vernacular of Jamaican slaves in an almost uncomfortable way for the reader.  However, the cursing and obscenities become minor distractions and annoyances in the telling of the tale.  The reader is soon caught up in a web of deceit and treachery from the slave-holders to the slaves.  The men in the story are reference points to keep the reader clear on what the stakes are for these women, both black and white.

The night affords invisibility to them and they do unspeakable things under cover of darkness, each as a way to manifest her own destiny of freedom. They are all unfailingly human in their triumphs and failures and in the end, the price is often their lives.  No one is left untouched because their lives are inextricably intwined, both the slaves and their captors. Sex and love between the enslaved and their slavers forms a back-drop and often-times blurs the lines of who is who and what the rules and roles are.

If you enjoyed John Crow’s Devil by Marlon James, you will certainly find The Book of Night Women equally enjoyable.

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