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notesfrommyday 's review for:
The Long Song
by Andrea Levy
From the first few pages, I knew I was going to get along well with both the book and with the protagonist and narrator, July. It has been a while since I have read a voice so vivid, so compelling, so funny but with such serious stories to tell.
As slavery comes to an end in Jamaica after an inconceivable 300 years, we learn about the life and times of July. House-slave on a sugar plantation with a fat and useless mistress, July overcomes a painful separation from her formidable field-slave mother, Kitty to somehow survive the brutality and injustice. As the tide of slavery turns, we see the white plantation owners struggle to keep their prosperity. We see 'good' Christian men bring their own insidious brand of racism in sheep's clothing.
Andrea Levy describes her book as 'most unexpected and surprising' and I would have to agree. I would never imagine that I could so thoroughly enjoy a book set at such a dark time with such dreadful acts being perpetrated. Of course, there were points in the book which I found hard to read and yet, July's wit and strength helped me through it. Although this is a work of fiction, it brought this era to life for me.
As slavery comes to an end in Jamaica after an inconceivable 300 years, we learn about the life and times of July. House-slave on a sugar plantation with a fat and useless mistress, July overcomes a painful separation from her formidable field-slave mother, Kitty to somehow survive the brutality and injustice. As the tide of slavery turns, we see the white plantation owners struggle to keep their prosperity. We see 'good' Christian men bring their own insidious brand of racism in sheep's clothing.
Andrea Levy describes her book as 'most unexpected and surprising' and I would have to agree. I would never imagine that I could so thoroughly enjoy a book set at such a dark time with such dreadful acts being perpetrated. Of course, there were points in the book which I found hard to read and yet, July's wit and strength helped me through it. Although this is a work of fiction, it brought this era to life for me.