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dknippling 's review for:

5.0

A novel about Jamaica from the Cold War to the Drug Wars, centered around the assassination attempt on Bob Marley.

ANY LANDING YOU WALK AWAY FROM IS A GOOD LANDING.

This was a great book but a hard read: history I didn't know, a lot of missing context, multiple POV characters whose voices are in a stream-of-consciousness style, tons of slang, a lot of name-switching, and 700 pages. But the characters are great, the history fascinating, the style of telling adds and gives depth to the conflict, and I left the book with a different view of the world than when I started.

Think of this book as an epic saga that spans decades and characters, rather than as a narrative about Bob Marley per se; he doesn't show up all that much, more talked about than seen.

I recommend this book if you've taken on Naked Lunch and liked it. It's not quite as surreal, but this book will not do you wrong.