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rowena

Rowena's Reviews

My true loves: Wilkie Collins, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anais Nin, George Eliot, James Joyce, James Baldwin, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, bell hooks, Chinua Achebe, Langston Hughes, William Shakespeare... I'm falling for : Italo Calvino, Toni Morrison, Frantz Fanon, Wole Soyinka, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Albert Camus, Margaret Atwood, Somerset Maugham, Junot Diaz, A.S. Byatt... And the lists continue to grow! I will read almost anything, as long as it's well-written. I always love to expand my reading horizons.

Currently reading

Orientalism
Edward W. Said
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
Finnegans Wake (Trade Paperback)
James Joyce
The Book of Night Women - Marlon James This book is about slavery in 19th Century Jamaica. It took me a while to get into this book because it is written entirely in Jamaican dialect (including the narration). Once you get used to that fact, the writing is quite charming.

This book brought out lots of emotions in me, mainly disgust and anger. It is extremely graphic in its imagery so definitely not a light read. It made me absolutely sick to my stomach reading about how the British colonialists treated slaves of African descent. It was hard to read about the lynchings, the rapes, the murders for making "mistakes" like serving tea that was too hot, the racism, the stealing of babies from their mothers, the depiction of blacks as lazy, dirty, stupid.....*sigh*

Despite the difficult subject matter, I gave this book 5-stars for a few reasons. Firstly, a book that's able to elicit such emotions from me but makes me want to finish it is obviously written well. Secondly, the historical explanations helped make the story seem more real. Thirdly, the writer's gift at using different styles of writing (British, Irish, Black etc) and his injections of humour and wit at the most unlikely places made the story more entertaining and believable,in my opinion.

I don't think I can read this book more than once, it was honestly too painful. I'm really glad I read it though.