The Book of Night Women
The Jamaican patois, narrated by Robin Miles, is remarkable. I was able to find this audiobook at Downpour!
If you choose to read this book, you simply must read this version narrated by Robin Miles, but you must pay close attention. The Jamaican patois isn't the easiest to follow, but it is worth the effort. The narration adds to the value of the book. You are a slave and you HATE the English estate owners, particularly Miss Isabelle. I do at least. I want to slap her and ..... The different character intonations make each one come alive, be that an uppity English woman, a crazy old mistress, a Johnny-Jumper, a field nigger, a house nigger. Lilith is an uppity teenager; most of us know what that means. Skin color hasn't a thing to do with that, at least not in the beginning. Then it gets more complicated.
This book is an immersion into another culture and time and place: a Jamaican plantation in the late 1700s / early 1800s. History is interwoven, but it is the atmosphere that swallows you up. A comfort read? No!
Humor? It is here, but sardonic. Black in more ways than one.
I have covered half. A little less than 8 hours remain.
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Now, having completed it, all I can add is that if you dare to tackle the subject and if you think you are up to total immersion in the horrors of black life on a Jamaican sugar plantation, I cannot name a better book. Don't read it; listen to Robin Miles narration. I will definitely have my eye out for other audiobooks narrated by Robin Miles. Her performance definitely improved the book.
I have thought a lot about if the plot line is believable. Yeah, it is. Teenage girls and their emotions: are they stable, predictable, reasonable, logical? No.
