Reviews for Harder They Come

The average rating for Harder They Come based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-02-21 00:00:00 Derek Wilczynski "The Harder They Come," the record, is one of the best records I own. "The Harder They Come," the song, is probably the best track on that record. "The Harder They Come," the film, is supposed to be great, but I haven't seen it (I have seen the fruits of its influence though... See every white person foray into reggae, from good ("Sandinista!") to bad (fucking Eric Clapton and 90's meathead ska poop). And "The Harder They Come," the novel, released almost two decades after the first depictions of Rhygin, gives us a context in which to appreciate all of that incredible achievement. No longer is the "Harder" soundtrack a merry walk down Jamaica lane... No, that album is about poverty! It's a social justice album, through and through, depicting the various ways Jamaicans overcome their squalor, some "positive" (the dance anthem "Sweet and Dandy") and some, err, less so (the proto-gangsta rap classics "Johnny Too Bad" and "Draw Your Brakes"); some showing the pull of spirituality ("Many Rivers to Cross," and "Rivers of Babylon"), others depicting the allure of the material world (the film references in "Shantytown," and "You Can Get It If You Really Want"). So yeah, a heavy record... But that doesn't mean you can't dance to it! That's kind of how "The Harder They Come," the book, works, too. Essentially, it's a coming of age story, and a crime story: Ivanhoe Martin's journey from his rural childhood to his urban adulthood, and his gradual descent (ascent?) into criminality and reggae music (the "Rhygin" personality). It's a good damn story, mixing "Clockers" with, like, "Jane Eyre," but it's just the skeleton, really. It's the way Thelwell fleshes out these bones, with legends, myths, musical samples, rich dialogue, and a sense of all the changes working in and on Jamaica, that is truly impressive. Thelwell is a talented writer, but he is a dense writer, so navigating Ivan's tale requires a bit of patience at first. But once you've got a handle on the language of his characters, and once you start to feel the feel of Jamaica in every page, it's hard to stop reading. I did this thing in chunks. The first hundred pages probably took me a week. The next hundred took me half that. And the two hundred after that required just a couple days. The book ROCKETS toward its conclusion-- the speed of the narrative parallels the speed of its locales, from the sleepy idyllic jungle to the chaotic Kingston slums-- and ends on a perfect note. Why didn't I hear about this one earlier? It is outstanding reading for Black History month, and would make for a ridiculously entertaining entry in a Postcolonial Literature syllabus (Thelwell's perspective on white people in Jamaica is just BRUTAL). It's also a great excuse to pull out your copy of the soundtrack and drop the PRESSHAH on YOUUU. IT IS YOUUUU OH YEAHHHHH

Review # 2 was written on 2015-04-08 00:00:00 Kim Janeck There's something about this book... It's rare that you feel an author's love for a people this much through their writing. I think it's the fact that although the narration is in pretty standard English most of the time, you get these seamless shifts into Patwa that are simply genius. It is perfectly accessible to non-Jamaicans and at the same time the 2 are sewn together so that you don't feel that there is a discrepancy or a distance between the narrator and the characters.