I am now in the midst of reading Andrea Levy’s The Long Song, nominated for the Man Booker Award, which will be announced in London on October 12. Other nominees, which I have also read recently are Tom McCarthy’s C and Emma Donahue’s Room. We at Lemuria are all eager to learn the winner.
The Long Song by Andrea Levy, set in Jamaica in the mid 1800s, explores life on a large sugar cane plantation farmed by Jamaican slaves. When the proper English sister of an aristocratic planter and slave owner arrives to live in her brother’s household on the plantation called “Amity”, the story really takes off. The spoiled, unmarried and needy sister spots a nine year old girl, named July, with her large African American mother, and simply plucks the child from her mother to become a personal servant girl and renames her “Marguerite”.
On page 56, the reader gets a glimpse into the feelings of the newly arrived sister:
And, oh how, Caroline Mortimer had wept in those days. Not in sorrow for the sudden loss of her sister-in-law, nephew and servant girl, for she was scarcely familiar with any of them. No. She sobbed, ‘I hate this house and I hate this island, Marguerite…What am I doing here?…Did I leave England for this?…My brother hardly knows me…Oh why must I stay?…Because I have no choice, that is why…’ for finding herself with not a companion, nor a friend, in the whole world, let along the wretched island of Jamaica, except one little negro girl named Marguerite.
The very original narrative framework, in which the story is told late in her life by the aging July, or Marguerite, works well. Even though her son continues to correct his mother’s memory as she retells the story of her life on the plantation, the interesting narration compels the reader to continue to unravel the complex story. The obvious love/hate relationship between Caroline and Marguerite exposes the many levels of ever changing attachment between the two women as they both age.
I am not quite half way through with The Long Story, but I am committed to finish reading my third novel nominated for the Man Booker. As any reader would be, I am constantly exploring the possible reasons for this book’s prestigious nomination. I am supposing at this point that the clever dialogue which is dialect predictable with this historical novel may be one reason for its nomination. Another reason may be the expert use of the telling of “the story within a story”, for July, or Marguerite, as an all knowing narrator, speaks to the reader often, actively using this literary device to involve the reader and make him or her feel like the story is being actually audibly told scene by scene. As I am reading, I am reminded of how the first African American female poet, Phyllis Wheatley, was educated by her mistress in the United States during pre-Civil War years. The time period is right to make this comparison, even though the locations involve two very different countries.
Author Andrea Levy, English born to Jamaican parents, has written four previous novels, the last one winning the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, as well as the Orange Prize for Fiction: Best of the Best. If she wins the 2010 Man Booker, her novels will become highly read and discussed. The Long Song, included in the top six on the short list of nominations of this year’s Man Booker, is sure to be talked about. Listen to the live broadcast of the all of the authors’ interviews on October 12.
Click here for Nan’s blog on C.
Here for John’s blog on C.
And here for Kelly’s blog on Room.
-Nan
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