Reviews for The Long Song

The average rating for The Long Song based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-15 00:00:00 Max Bart The Long Song is a deeply moving story, but it's not what is said that is most effective. Indeed, it's about what isn't said that is the most powerful and intensely thought provoking aspect of the book. The story begins with an aged mother (July) narrating her story to her son. He then, in turn, is writing the book we have before us. So everything she says comes through him on the page. Although, we presume, he sticks relatively close to her narrative, it is filtered through him. He wouldn't change the facts per say, though he may present them in a way that he finds most appropriate. The two discuss this at length during a few interludes, and some aspects of the book is clearly told in the way July wishes them to be. But how far the rest of the book is an accurate portrayal of her words is impossible to tell. There's three levels of storytelling, and sometimes four where July draws on the memories of other characters. To call this a book that tests the limits of unreliable narration would be to invoke an understatement. But memory can be self-serving, and July uses her imagination to fill in the gaps of the story-telling. She speaks of events she didn't witness as if she was there. She is privy to facts she would never have known. So if she can do all this, how much of her own story can we actually trust to be accurate? It's hard to say. There are many gaps within the narrative. July's retelling begins with the story of how she was adopted (taken would be a more appropriate word) into white society. She and her mother were slaves, and one day a white woman liked the look of July so she thought she'd have her as her pet. She took her from her mother, who had no say in the event, and kept her with her as a sort of handmaiden. July then developed a complex psychological state. She was a black woman acting like a racist white woman, once again evocative of the ideas in Black Skins, White Masks. After a new overseer arrives and a love triangle develops, lately followed my massacre and tragedy, July then skips forward twenty or so years and we never learn what happened to July through this period of time, though we can presume it wasn't very pleasant. She doesn't wish to talk about it after all. So we have a half story, a story of the injustice one woman felt in such a world. We see the end of slavery, and the real transition the slaves felt afterward. Although they had more freedom, the serfdom did not end overnight. Levy delves deep into the historical issues of the time, and makes this part of history, the history of the Caribbean slave, known. Levy plays around with language and traditional narrative expectations to create a story that is exactly what her character wants it to be. She chooses what events she is going to tell, and it's up to us to ascertain the accuracy of them. At times it felt purposely cinematic; it felt like this was written for the screen. And that's not a bad thing. I think this would make an excellent movie because it, certainly, is a very creative and highly effective historical novel.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-02-11 00:00:00 Greg Riepl 4.25 stars Following on from Small Island; this is another historical novel and this time Levy looks at her Jamaican roots charting the last days of slavery on the island. It is narrated by July, a former slave, and starts about 1831 the time of what was known as the Baptist revolt and goes to the end of slavery in the late 1830s. July is telling her story in old age whilst she is living with her son Thomas. The novel is the story of her early life on a plantation called Amity. Although narrated by July, it is edited by Thomas and there is a periodic interplay between the two which sometimes gives the story a slightly odd feel. July describes herself as a mulatto; her father was white, an overseer and raped her mother. She was taken from her mother whilst still young to become the pet and then lady's maid to Caroline Mortimer, the vapid and foolish sister of the plantation owner. A new overseer, Robert Goodwin, arrives with good intentions and a Christian upbringing. He intends to show that following slavery the plantation can be managed on humane lines. The charting of his downfall on several levels is fascinating. He ends up being just as cruel as his predecessors. The story is weaved around actual historical events. The telling of any story of slavery is going to be difficult and will contain horrors; and this certainly does. However, the character of July is irrepressible and injects a strong comic element into the novel. There is always a question here as to whether July is an entirely reliable narrator. This and the humour counterpoised with the background of slavery makes for an unusual feel. The humour is Pythonesque at times; at the same time reviewers have also described it as a Comedy of Manners. There is also a touch of Upstairs/Downstairs about it as we see the two worlds; slaves and masters running parallel. The Jamaican setting gives a rather different feel to the American novels about slavery. In Jamaica the white population was very small and relative newcomers. This led to relationships on the plantations shifting in different ways; with both sides having the ability to harm each other. This is a good novel with some well-drawn characters (especially July); it doesn't, for me have the power of books like Beloved and there are irritations with the structure. Nevertheless it is well worth reading for its particular focus on the women in the story.