The Long Song

Jun 26, 2010 Ami rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Tone Deaf People

Shelves: 2010, aggravating, historical-fiction, war-era-novels, fiction

“The Long Song” is a story about a woman named July, who writes a memoir about her life in Jamaica during its 19th century slave era. She is taken from her mother Kitty at the age of 9 by the request of the plantation owner’s sister Caroline Mortimer. July’s position at the main house on Amity Plantation as Caroline’s personal maid was full of hard work; her lessons learned during the early years were just as difficult, despite her escaping the laborious work and abuse associated with the sugar...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Sally Whitehead rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

With a keen interest in the writing of Caribbean women, and the female perspective of slavery, I'd been meaning to read Andrea Levy for a long time. Given my personal interests her fifth novel "The Long Song" seemed like a good place to start. Yet despite being an engaging, well crafted read in the end I was somehow left wanting. Our somewhat unreliable narrator Miss July, herself a 19th century Jamaican slave now free to tell her story with the editorial assistance of her once estranged son Tho...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Ernestine rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am enjoying this book. It is set in the same time as the Book of Night Women but it does not take itself as seriously as Night Women. The people are very down to earth. The Europeans are very human and the enslaved Africans are rational. I do not have a feel for how real the reactions of the enslaved are given their life experiences at the time, but I would like to think that the Long Song gives a good picture. As in Night Women it was attractive to have a white man as a lover in the hopes tha...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Chrissie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: caribbean, hf, kirkus, sample-b, jamaica, immigrants, disliked

This was a huge disappointment to me.
I found the depiction of the black Jamaican slaves positively insulting. Their plight and their path toward freedom is a central theme, but they need not be presented so degradingly.

The writing is wordy and convoluted. Get to the point. I do not want to wade through all these words to get the gist of the story.

The characters, they were all very unappealing. Not just unappealing, downright despicable. Whites and blacks alike.

If you are looking for a smidgen...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Stephanie (Stepping out of the Page) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, disliked, realistic-fiction, historical, adult-fiction, cultural, not-for-me, books-i-own

Unfortunately, I feel as though this book just went over my head. It was certainly different to anything else that I've ever read because of the writing style and I did enjoy how the writer engaged with the reader, but it didn't pull me in enough - I wasn't intrigued and I never had a desire to read on. I didn't completely absorb the story as I found the writing to be quite confusing at times and because I couldn't properly concentrate, I didn't enjoy what I was actually absorbing. That said, I...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

From the first few pages, I knew I was going to get along well with both the book and with the protagonist and narrator, July. It has been a while since I have read a voice so vivid, so compelling, so funny but with such serious stories to tell.
As slavery comes to an end in Jamaica after an inconceivable 300 years, we learn about the life and times of July. House-slave on a sugar plantation with a fat and useless mistress, July overcomes a painful separation from her formidable field-slave mothe...more

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May 20, 2012 Natasha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Levy's novel is an excellent narrative of slave life in Jamaica. The book is in response to traditional slave narratives, and rather than showing one individual "rising up" from their desperate situation, it shows the daily life of slaves and their attempts to make a life for themselves with the limited liberties they are allowed.

There are numerous overt and subtle incidences of rape, murder, and other horrific injustice throughout the book, and Levy shows how the slaves, by managing not to foc...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audible-read

I listened to the unabridged audio version of this book. It ran to 11 hours 20 mins and was narrated by the author and Adrian Lester. The story is set in Jamaica towards the end of slavery and follows the life of Miss July aka Marguerite who is born into slavery on a sugar plantation. Through this timeline we are given an account of the events leading to the end of slavery in Jamaica.

I enjoyed Andrea Levy's narration and found the story of July's early life very interesting. However, I felt that...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Fiona Veitch rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have never read any of Levy before, although I was aware of her as a Booker Prize nominee. But after reading this incredible novel I will certainly be looking out for her other books, including the critically acclaimed Small Island.

The Long Song is set on a Jamaican sugar plantation in the last years of slavery. Although it deals with some horrific events, it does so with a great deal of humour. This is in no small part due to Levy’s characterisation of her main character, the sassy slave girl...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Big Book Little Book added it

Set in Jamaica in the 1800's this book follows the story of July, a slave girl taken from her mother aged only about 8 years old. July narrates the story herself and uses language that would have been her own. This can take a little getting used to, but obviously, lends authority to the story. It also enables July to step between different times and parts of her life. She would come out of the story and back to the present day. This brought out her sense of humour and allows us to share the refl...more Set in Jamaica in the 1800's this book follows the story of July, a slave girl taken from her mother aged only about 8 years old. July narrates the story herself and uses language that would have been her own. This can take a little getting used to, but obviously, lends authority to the story. It also enables July to step between different times and parts of her life. She would come out of the story and back to the present day. This brought out her sense of humour and allows us to share the reflections she is making as she writes about her life, not least of which is her debating whether what she has written is actually true. This makes for interesting reading!

July has quite an eventful life. She experiences both positive and negative results of living in slavery, which makes this a fascinating and intriguing read. Her personal relationships, which are so impacted by her slave state are very varied, her view of herself is really interesting, and how she sees herself in relation to others. This book felt very driven by the characters, and at times therefore felt a bit slow. However there is actually plenty of action, and on reflection I felt that the slowness came because I couldnt tell where the story was going next. It was like a wide river, meandering along, but with no shortage of things to look at on the way!

The history side of the story also appealed to me. I don't know much about what happened in the countries where slavery was when it was brought to an end and I learnt loads! It was even more interesting to read it from the point of view of the slaves. In particular the story brought home the difficulties and complications any such transition would incur.

Only after reading the book did I realise that Andrea Levy also wrote 'Small Island' which has been adapted for television and is something I would like to read. This is a book I may not have ordinarily read (it was a book club book) but I would like to read more of her work. If you have found books like ‘The Colour Purple' and 'Gone with the Wind' interesting, then I think you will like this.

Verdict. An interesting and sometimes unexpected read. Definitely one to try.
4.5/5
Helen for http://bigbooklittlebook.blogspot.com (less)

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Jun 16, 2011 TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The tale herein is all my mama's endeavor.

So says Thomas Kinsman, a Jamaican publisher, who learned his trade in Britain after his mother abandoned him, newborn, on the doorstep of a Baptist missionary. Thomas intends to publish his mother’s book – a memoir – very nicely bound, complete with sugar cane on the cover. However, he and his mother, an octogenarian Jamaican woman named July, who was once a slave on the Amity Plantation, definitely do not see eye-to-eye. Thomas tells us in his Introduc...more

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May 06, 2011 Mrsgaskell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 9-star, library

Andrea Levy is the author of Small Island which won the Orange Prize. I loved that book so am always eager to read more by this writer. The Long Song did not disappoint. Set in Jamaica, it is the fictional story of a slave, told in the form of a memoir by the now elderly woman. Miss July was born to her field negro mother, Kitty, who was raped by the Scottish overseer Tam Dewar. As a little girl, Miss July was noticed by the "massa's" widowed sister Caroline Mortimer and taken in as a house serv...more

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Apr 13, 2011 David Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars

I came to 'The Long Song' having thoroughly enjoyed Andrea Levy's 'Small Island'. My expectations were high, and she did not merely match but exceed them. Her secret is in finding the right voice for the story, and in the female slave July she found someone to conduct us through the years of slavery and (so-called) freedom for the blacks in Jamaica with just the right amount of irreverence to deny her victim status, and an instinctive native wit to counterbalance the misery, or rather to give it...more I came to 'The Long Song' having thoroughly enjoyed Andrea Levy's 'Small Island'. My expectations were high, and she did not merely match but exceed them. Her secret is in finding the right voice for the story, and in the female slave July she found someone to conduct us through the years of slavery and (so-called) freedom for the blacks in Jamaica with just the right amount of irreverence to deny her victim status, and an instinctive native wit to counterbalance the misery, or rather to give it a very individual perspective.

Levy admits in her own notes on writing the novel to the anticipated difficulty of writing about slavery "without it turning into a harrowing tale of violence and misery". July arose from that anxiety as the answer to it. As a narrator she is unreliable, one-eyed and sometimes mendacious, which is paradoxically why we trust her version of events above the orthodox white historian's view. She is not overly interested in the historical details (though the author has clever devices to give us just as much as we need) preferring to let the story unfold for us through her experiences and her relationships. She is often self-deluded, succeeds in fooling us too at times, and we love her for it.

You might be surprised, given the subject matter, when I tell you that this is in many ways a highly comic novel. July's interpretation of her mistress Caroline's foibles, for example, is pure Fielding at times, as is July's relationship with her own son, Thomas, who is presented as the publisher of her story and with whom she has a continuing chafing dialogue about her version of events. The written down speech of the late-educated Jamaican slave is another source of amusement, in the same way that Huck Finn makes us smile as he tells his tale Mississippi-style. Levy writes with the ear just as well as Mark Twain did.

However much we are entertained by July, we never lose sight of her courage, her tenacity, her life-affirming spirit, and through them we see the qualities that all those who survived and eventually thrived in that harsh period must have had in abundance. Levy never fails to get her message through clearly. That she can do so without a hint of didactism or of overwrought sentimentality says much about her ability as a writer of our times and of our sometimes inglorious past.

Reviewer David Williams has a regular writer's blog http://writerinthenorth.blogspot.com (less)

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Feb 12, 2011 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

I chose this book from the NYT Notable list mostly because I was going to the Caribbean and looking for something thematically appropriate to read. I didn't know whether I would like it and actually I wasn't terribly impressed with the excerpt I read, since it felt too florid and I sometimes can't quite accept a framing story wherein a character is actually writing down narration that feels so lyrical.

This book grew on me. The narrator is named July. Born on a Jamaica sugarcane plantation in the...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Darryl Mexic rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: overrated

This book is about slavery and the onset of freedom in Jamacia in the early part of the 19th century. The story is told in the form of a memoir by former slave and presently the mother of a successful and highly educated printer. The storyteller was born via the rape of her mother by the white overseer of the sugar cane plantation, where the mother worked. She was taken from her mother at a young age to work in the main house of the plantation, serving as personal maid and assistant to the whit...more

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Jan 03, 2011 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Long Song is a beautifully written novel, I have loved each of Andrea Levy's previous novels, but with this one I think she has shown herself to be a really gifted writer.
Our narrator is July, a black woman born into slavery in Jamaica. July is relating the story of her life - and later freedom as slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1838 - for her son a successful printer in 1898. By her own admission July is not always a reliable story teller - but gradually her story is revealed. Not surpr...more

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Jan 02, 2011 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 22, 2010 Ari rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ari by: Tricia

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've never liked reading about slavery. Even if it's a great literary masterpiece, I have to work my way up to it. This one intrigued me because I had read reviews that described it as 'humorous.' A book with slavery that was humorous? Hmm. I'm glad I took a chance and read it. It's not laugh-out-loud funny but there is a dark sense of humor that runs throughout the book. Readers will smile or smirk at the quiet acts of rebellion slaves engaged in. Ranging from...more I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've never liked reading about slavery. Even if it's a great literary masterpiece, I have to work my way up to it. This one intrigued me because I had read reviews that described it as 'humorous.' A book with slavery that was humorous? Hmm. I'm glad I took a chance and read it. It's not laugh-out-loud funny but there is a dark sense of humor that runs throughout the book. Readers will smile or smirk at the quiet acts of rebellion slaves engaged in. Ranging from spitting in the dinner to using a bedsheet as a tablecloth, etc. At first I was appalled at how crude the actions could be, but then I realized that I can't even fully comprehend what slaves had to go through, so who am I to judge? I almost wish I read more about slavery so that I could compare American slavery to Jamaican slavery. I would wager a guess that Jamaican slavery was much harsher, although it did end earlier (I believe 1838). July does not like to dwell on all the horrors of slavery so it's not as graphic as it could be. I'm just really sensitive to suffering in literature so I was constantly wincing or balling my fists up. There was an excellent quote about the demise of slavery and the celebrations that ensued "As the coffin with the words, 'colonial slavery died July 31, 1838, aged 276 years' was lowered into the ground, a joyous breeze blew. It was whipped up from the gasps of cheering that erupted unbounded. When the handcuffs, chains and iron collars were thrown into that long-awaited grave to clatter on top of slavery's ruin, the earth did tremor. For at that moment every slave upon this island did shake off the burden of their bondage as one." (pg. 141)

The Long Song is a more gentle look at slavery as well as eye-opening. I'm willing to bet that not many Americans know of the Baptist War, which was a slavery uprising that lasted ten days in 1832. July lives through that and it's interesting to read her observations on it as well as to see how Caroline felt about it all. There's nothing suspenseful to this plot, but there are some surprises (especially concerning the white master). I was also shocked by the madness of some of the characters, ones who started out quite reasonable and then became someone else entirely. Also for readers who don't know much about the history of color prejudice in the Black community, this book provides a good foundation in seeing why everyone thought you were alright if you were white (or just light). July is a fun narrator to have because she is quick-witted and you can just tell that while she's sharing some of her more mischief-filled tales, she's winking at the reader and smirking to herself. Her son has to cajole her into providing more details and we're grateful he does (she records the gist of their conversations) because it offers a less than rosy picture that July was trying to present. This makes July somewhat unreliable but her son always holds her to task (and she complains about that quite a bit). July acknowledges that slavery sucked but she doesn't want to dwell on it anymore. The writing was such that I could sense July sitting next to me and hear the cadence of Jamaica in her voice and the voices of other slaves and even the poor white folks. Historical fiction at its finest, provides a firm sense of setting and characters.

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Dec 21, 2010 Lilian rated it 5 of 5 stars

In The Long Song, Levy’s narrator is an old Black woman who has been asked by her son, a successful publisher, to write her memoirs of slavery in Jamaica. The story alternates between her memoir of the 1830′s and her present day interactions with her son and his family. This is a difficult time made bearable and more--rich and exciting--because of the first person narrator.

She is poetic, tough, sly, funny and “unreliable.” I put that in quotation marks because her lack of reliability is only in...more

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Oct 28, 2010 Kiwiflora rated it 5 of 5 stars

Andrea Levy centres her novel on a dark chapter in British history - the last years of a 300 year history of slavery in Jamaica. In the first quarter of the 19th century, July is born to Kitty, a field slave on the Amity plantation. Her father is the brutal white overseer, so July is a mulatto. Not that this makes her life any easier, but purely by chance she is literally taken from her mother's arms and ends up as a house slave living in the big house as the personal maid to Caroline Mortimer,...more Andrea Levy centres her novel on a dark chapter in British history - the last years of a 300 year history of slavery in Jamaica. In the first quarter of the 19th century, July is born to Kitty, a field slave on the Amity plantation. Her father is the brutal white overseer, so July is a mulatto. Not that this makes her life any easier, but purely by chance she is literally taken from her mother's arms and ends up as a house slave living in the big house as the personal maid to Caroline Mortimer, sister to the English owner of the plantation. July's life is by no means easy, but she is smart, has excellent instincts and quickly learns to manipulate her mistress, and eventually the new white overseer, fresh off the boat from England, idealistic and noble.

At this time there were strong moves in Britain to abolish slavery, but naturally it took a while to filter through to places like the Carribean. In 1831, the slaves in the area of Jamaica that the novel is set in, revolted against the British landowners. The revolt as one would expect. was quickly and violently and cruelly suppressed with plenty of reprisals against the slaves, but it did result a few years later in slavery in Jamaica being abolished, and the slaves being freed. Although the changes brought about by the stroke of a pen in London took considerably longer to take place at the grass roots of plantation life somewhere half way around the world. Suffice to say that July's life is never an easy one, but it does make a superb story.

Not only is the story riveting, but the author has chosen to tell it through the eyes of July as an elderly woman, telling it her way, to her son, who wants the story told his way. In dribs and drabs the son 'encourages' his mother to tell her story, in wonderful parent-child dialogue, the son of course wanting every detail possible and the mother wanting to keep some things secret. It is almost as if there are two stories going on in this novel.

The best thing about this story is the rich use of language. July is of slave birth and so has no chance of growing up speaking the 'Queen's English',let alone being able to read and write. Her way of speaking and telling a story is a complete corruption of English as we know it. It is colourful, colloquial, idiosyncratic and has a whole rhythm and music to it that English English does not, making it a joy to read and enjoy. On first reading there were sentences that just did not make sense, but like all good writers, she makes us re-read the sentence to get the sense.

The subject matter is tragic, violent, heart-rending, far too visual and ghastly in places to be called enjoyable. But July's refusal to give up, to keep on trying to make things better for herself, her ability to turn situations to her advantage give this story enormous energy and hope, and like many other books I have read and loved, it shows the power of the human spirit to overcome and beat adversity. Read this and just love this woman for the survivor she is.
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Oct 15, 2010 Melinda Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

I am, and you all must be as well, sick of having to write reviews that are mainly negative. I enjoy reading and is it too much to ask for a book that delievers enjoyment?

Alas.

Anyways, The Long Song had an interesting story. Actually I'll change that, it had the potential to be a very good story. Unfortunately the nattative of July and her son just wasn't up to scratch. The interjections throughout the book, whilst I assume they were there to guide the reader through a fairly lacklustre story, j...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: booker-prize-nominee, historical-fiction

Well, here's a lesson for me. When I first saw that this book had made the Booker Prize longlist, I was thrilled. I had read the author's Small Island when it first came out some years back and liked it so I was eager to get into this one. Then, when I picked it up and started reading it, I was a bit unsure, because my first thought was "oh no, another book about slavery." There's a story behind that remark: about a year ago, I had read a book about slavery that was emotionally difficult to get...more Well, here's a lesson for me. When I first saw that this book had made the Booker Prize longlist, I was thrilled. I had read the author's Small Island when it first came out some years back and liked it so I was eager to get into this one. Then, when I picked it up and started reading it, I was a bit unsure, because my first thought was "oh no, another book about slavery." There's a story behind that remark: about a year ago, I had read a book about slavery that was emotionally difficult to get through called The Book of Night Women, by Marcus James and frankly, I didn't think I could go there again. But The Long Song was not at all what I was expecting -- and I ended up being unable to put it down.

The narrator is Miss July, who was a slave at Amity plantation in Jamaica in the 19th century. At first she's extremely reluctant and even apologetic in describing the night she was conceived when her mother was raped by the overseer, but eventually, her son, who is publishing his mother's memoirs notes that this didn't last long:

Although shy of the task at first, after several months she soon became quite puffed up, emboldened to the point where my advice often fell on to ears that remained deaf to it.

And really, July holds nothing back; indeed sometimes her zeal leads her to fabricate, but manages to rein in the "nice" version of her stories to get back to the reality of her life in Jamaica. She belongs to John Howarth, master of Amity, and works out in the fields until the arrival of Howarth's sister, Caroline Mortimer. Caroline brought a maid with her from England, but the maid dies shortly thereafter, and Caroline decides to take July in her maid's place. Inside the house, the mischievous and often devilish July is given the name "Marguerite," and with the other house servants, does everything she can to thwart Caroline, including putting a soiled bedsheet on the table instead of the best tablecloth for a company dinner. Her time at Amity runs through The Baptist War or Christmas Uprising of 1831, as well as through the eventual emancipation of all of the slaves in 1838. In the meantime, a string of overseers come to Amity, ending with Robert Goodwin, whose arrival changes everything about life at the plantation.

The author does not disguise any of the dehumanizing and horrifying aspects of slavery, or the racism inherent among the whites who do not see slaves as people but rather as chattel. She also examines the color line among the slaves themselves in July's discussion about Miss Clara, famous for her white man's boarding house, her dances (to which July would never be invited) and her jams:

Only with a white man, can there be guarantee that the colour of your pickney will be raised. For a mulatto who breeds with a white man will bring forth a quadroon; and the quadroon that enjoys white relations will give to this world a mustee; the mustee will beget a mustiphino; and the mustiphino...oh, the mustaphino's child with a white man for a papa will find each day greets them no longer with a frown, but welcomes them with a smile, as they at last stride within this world as a cherished white person....Forward only to white skin became Miss Clara's mission.

Her characterizations are very real, from the slaves to the masters to well-meaning Christian ministers and sympathetic white people. Her sense of place is well evoked. And even small details become meaningful, especially in one of my favorite parts of the novel: a story about a painting by the artist Francis Bear. But what really shines through here is the emphasis on the power of storytelling, which is highlighted each time July gives an introduction to what she's writing, addressing herself often as "your storyteller," and even advising her readers that she can't go on, interjecting herself throughout the story:

I can go no further! Reader, my story is at an end. Close up this book and go on about your day. You have heard all that I have to tell of a life lived upon this sugar island. This wretched pen will blot and splutter with ink no more in pursuance of our character July. I now lay it down in its final rest.

But thankfully, she does go on, until her "long song" is finished. I appreciated the fact that Ms. Levy might have chosen to bring a sappy ending to this story that might have diminished this novel and did not, thereby maintaining the integrity of The Long Song until the final word.

I can highly recommend this book -- it is powerful, extremely well written and it's a story you won't soon forget. (less)

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Aug 10, 2010 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 04, 2010 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bought-copy, literary

The Long Song chronicles, from a first person perspective, the life of July, a female slave born and brought up on the plantation Amity. She speaks about her life at the behest of her son, starting with the rape of her mother by a cruel overseer, through her time as a house maid for a white lady called Caroline Mortimer, the two children she bears, and touches on the dying days of slavery, including the Baptist Wars.

The book is written with simplicity and grace, using the Caribbean patois to gre...more The Long Song chronicles, from a first person perspective, the life of July, a female slave born and brought up on the plantation Amity. She speaks about her life at the behest of her son, starting with the rape of her mother by a cruel overseer, through her time as a house maid for a white lady called Caroline Mortimer, the two children she bears, and touches on the dying days of slavery, including the Baptist Wars.

The book is written with simplicity and grace, using the Caribbean patois to great effect. July's voice is warm and cheeky, insisting that she will tell her story without "...words flowing free as the droppings that fall from the backside of a mile..." The words bounce from the page, idiosyncratic and humorous: 'fatty batty', 'bug-a-bug', 'licky-licky'.

With the prose reading so smoothly, it is easy to disregard this novel as being merely light and readable. It deals, rather, with the true realities of slavery and plantation life: the gulf between the house slaves and those who worked the fields; the hateful mistreatment and casual cruelty by the white people of those who slaved for them; and, indeed, the undercurrents of tension between the blacks regarding the colour of their skin: "Only with a white man, can there be guarantee that the colour of your pickney will be raised. For a mulatto who breeds with a white man will bring forth a quadroon; the the quadroon that enjoys white relations will give to this world a mustee; the mustee will beget a mustiphino; and the mustiphino... oh, the mustiphino's child with a white man for a papa, will find each day greets them no longer with a frown, but welcomes them with a smile, as they at last stride within this world as a cherished white person."

Despite the weighty subject matter, Levy manages to avoid it becoming a depressing read. In fact, we delight in the japes played by the slaves on their white owners, such as when they switch the good table linen for soiled bedsheets during an important Christmas meal. However, there are a couple of occasions when the sheer horrors of the slaves' lives is brought home to us, such as here when Kitty carries dung in a container upon her head: "...the solid odour did choke her at the throat, after mighty coughing and a few strong inhalations, all the air about Kitty, be it sweet or bitter, came to smell like shit, so the offence was lost. But for her tongue there was no such accommodation. When, unwittingly, a piece would fall into her open mouth... it would burn so fierce upon her tongue that she feared a hole was being bored right through it."

The white people in this tale are, universally, to be derided or hated or pitied - none of them emerge well, but all are three dimensional with realistic motives ascribed to them, such as Robert Goodwin who seeks to do well by the blacks he owns right up until the point where they refuse to work for him.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Long Song - in fact, my only complaint was minor and thus: the story was written from first person perspective which meant that a) sometimes July wouldn't have known things that she was presented as knowing e.g. how her mistress feels when smelling the bodies of her slaves and b) we missed hearing an awful lot of external events, since July herself did not see them or know of them.

Other than this, The Long Song was a fine book - telling an authentic tale about a very shameful point in British history. It represents a feat in research and imagination, combining to present a novel that, though slight, presents an honest account of what it must have been to live as a slave in the 1800s. I found it entertaining, funny and horrific by turns and the story of July will stay with me for a while.

Man Booker Prize thoughts: I feel like a fraud talking about this novel's chances at the Booker Prize. I genuinely don't think I've read any of the previous winners, unless by accident and all unaware! This being the first novel of the long list I've read, as well, doesn't make it any easier setting out my thoughts. All I can say about its chances is that I think it effectively combines literary skill with a damn good story, that also conveys a weighty message. If this is what the Booker judges are looking for, then I can see The Long Song making it to the short list. (less)

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Jul 16, 2010 Steven Buechler rated it 5 of 5 stars

We consider Jamaica to be a simple winter getaway for us but Andrea Levy’s The Long Song told me about the story of the island conflicted history – especially its horrors of slavery when it was under British rule.

I love the way the story opens. It has a lyrically style and causes the reader to want to follow the narrative from beginning to end. Here is the opening paragraph:
The book you are now holding within your hand was born of a craving. My mama had a story – a story that lay so fat within h...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Louise rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

I totally fell in love with Kitty and July from the first page in. A woman who knows and owns her tongue as she herself says: “...is a woman possessed of a forthright tongue and little ink...or taking good words to whine upon...is neither prudent nor my fancy”. If you’re not interested in reading HER story the way SHE writes it, then she invites you to: “...be on your way for there are plenty books to satisfy if words flowing free as droppings that fall from the backside of a mule is your desire...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Alola rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really enjoyed this book. Beautifully written story of a slave woman in Jamaica. It brings alive wonderfully resonant characters in a fascinating story of life and survival in the cruel and brutal context of a slave plantation in the 1800s. The main character July, is extremely accessible, telling her life story with passion and humour. I really enjoyed the manner in which the story is told. July narrates her life story to her grown-up son. This narrative style creates some fun exchanges between...more

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Apr 01, 2010 Darryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The latest novel by Andrea Levy is narrated by an older Jamaican woman in the late 19th or early 20th century, and is the story of July, a headstrong mulatto girl born in slavery to Kitty, a homely and dark but strong woman on a struggling sugar cane plantation on the island. Her English master, John Howarth, allows his sister, Caroline Mortimer, to live on the plantation after the premature death of her husband. Caroline takes a liking to the beautiful July, and she is taken from Kitty and allo...more The latest novel by Andrea Levy is narrated by an older Jamaican woman in the late 19th or early 20th century, and is the story of July, a headstrong mulatto girl born in slavery to Kitty, a homely and dark but strong woman on a struggling sugar cane plantation on the island. Her English master, John Howarth, allows his sister, Caroline Mortimer, to live on the plantation after the premature death of her husband. Caroline takes a liking to the beautiful July, and she is taken from Kitty and allowed to live in the plantation house as Caroline's personal servant. She does not approve of her birth name, and renames her Marguerite instead.

After the death of Howarth's wife, Caroline assumes a greater role in the day to day operations of the plantation. The field slaves are treated brutally and inhumanely, and small acts of rebellion begin to become organized movements, as the slaves become aware of the abolitionist movement in England yet are not granted emancipation. A large insurrection occurs, and Howarth dies, leaving Caroline to run the plantation. The overseer is also killed in the insurrection, and Caroline hires and fires several men, none of whom can do the job to her satisfaction.

A new man, Robert Goodwin, the son of an English clergyman, is hired. Unlike the other overseers, he is handsome, refined and gentle natured, and Caroline soon falls for him. However, Goodwin is entranced by the beautiful July/Marguerite, and he falls in love with her.

The Long Song is a captivating story of love, the brutality of slavery and its devastating effects on both slaves and colonists. Levy also discusses the role that race and color played in post-emancipation Jamaica, as mulattos, quadroons and octoroons were able to rise above their darker brothers and sisters, to their social and financial benefit. July was richly portrayed by the author; however, the other main characters, especially Howarth and Mortimer, and Goodwin to a lesser extent, were not. I still found this to be a worthwhile and enjoyable read, and would recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about Jamaica.(less)

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Mar 08, 2010 Felice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Flower, do you know that Andrea Levy's novel Small Island has been dramatized for Masterpiece Theater? It will be on, check your local listings, in April. How great is that? Did you further know that not only did Small Island win the Orange Prize but it was also the book voted the best book to ever win the Orange Prize. The old Double Whammy.

Levy's new book is Long Song. It's out already out in the UK--where my copy came from via friend Simon--and it's due out here in April. I am predicting that...more Flower, do you know that Andrea Levy's novel Small Island has been dramatized for Masterpiece Theater? It will be on, check your local listings, in April. How great is that? Did you further know that not only did Small Island win the Orange Prize but it was also the book voted the best book to ever win the Orange Prize. The old Double Whammy.

Levy's new book is Long Song. It's out already out in the UK--where my copy came from via friend Simon--and it's due out here in April. I am predicting that it will outsell Small Island and why shouldn't it? It's an even better book. This is Levy's fourth novel and with each one her writing gets more powerful and more assured. Her imagery is stronger and her plots tighter.

According to the foreword Long Song is the story of the Mother of the book's editor. That touch of fiction creates a faux authenticity to the novel that works perfectly. Long Song is set in early nineteenth century Jamaica in the years just before and after slavery was abolished. July is a slave on the sugar cane plantation, Amity. She was born to work herself to an early grave in the sugar fields, one of anonymous hundreds of thousands doomed to the same fate. That fate is thwarted by the plantation owner's deceptively dizzy sister, Caroline. She is given July and makes her a part of the upper crust of slavery, a house slave. This promotion does not mean that July is no longer in a brutal and merciless environment with no hope of escape. She is treated how ever the whims of her owners dictate. One day she's a pet the next day she's a victim but she is always human and far from a saint When Caroline marries a charismatic English abolitionist long on looks and short on ideals the dynamic between July and Caroline becomes even more interesting.

Levy is traveling on well worn ground with a slavery story. There are gargantuan shoes to fill or at least get measured up against. There is Beloved, Roots, Gone With The Wind, Jubilee and Sacred Hunger to name just a few. More often novels about slavery are salacious, exploitative cheese fests. Long Song has the commanding literary power of the best slavery fiction but it also has Levy's humor. She is able (especially in July's scenes with her son the "editor" of this book) to give her characters a sense of humor without trivializing their experiences or minimizing the relationships between slave and master. In fact the moments of life affirming levity underscore the sufferings of the slaves.

Long Song could not be more impressive. The daily life, the blight of slavery, the caprice and cruelty of the slave owners, the tiny seconds of happiness, the Baptist War and the incredibly solid characterizations-- everything is pitch perfect. Andrea Levy will be short listed for everything this year and have the grattitude of any reader who steps into her remarkable novel.(less)

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Aug 22, 2010 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sept-oct-2010

Before opening a book on slavery, many readers must brace themselves, knowing from past experience the emotional toll it is likely to take. The Long Song, however, strikes an altogether different tone from that of Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) or Marlon James's The Book of Night Women (HHHH May/June 2009). Peppered with humor and her trademark wit, Levy's fifth novel paints "a vivid and persuasive portrait of Jamaican slave society" (New York Times) that is highly readable and rarely depressing...more

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