Bocas Lit Fest: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon Jones

 

Five books completed, and it's time to pack for The Bocas Lit Fest......

Awhile back, I religiously went through a six month, intense training program to run in the Marine Corp Marathon. I thoroughly enjoyed the weekly workouts and the long runs on Saturdays. Because of the training, I enjoyed the marathon as much as person can expect to enjoy a marathon. However, after the marathon, I missed the journey to get to the marathon... Crazy Right? I normally love the journey more than the destination. Now, don't get me wrong, I typical love the destination, but the journey to get to the destination is where I get my energy. (I love working towards a goal.)

The journey of reading five books by five different authors who will be at The Bocas Lit Fest has been a great journey that has been completely exhilarating. I have enjoyed purposefully reading with an end result of meeting the authors who wrote the books that I read and so many other authors. I know that the journey of reading these five novels will enhance my experience at my first ever international lit fest.  

Now, I liked the first four books that I read for the lit fest a whole lot, but A Brief History of Seven Killings did not do it for me. I read about 400 of the over 600 pages, skimmed to the end to see if I could find some inspiration to keep reading, and after much deliberation, I decided to let this one go.

A Brief History of Seven Killings is a fictional account of an attempt to murder Bob Marley through the view point of about twenty different characters or more. Each person tells a different piece of this huge puzzle. 

In the beginning I was following the characters and enjoying the different voices. I really admire how Marlon had so many characters with totally unique voices in the same book. This is some quite sophisticated writing. However, after awhile, I could not follow the storyline anymore and was not quite sure what was going on. 

I totally respect Marlon because this had to be quite a difficult book to write. I hope that I run into him during the lit fest so that we can talk about his process of developing so many characters with unique voices.

For taking on this courageous project, I must give Marlon 'the thumbs up'.

If any of you, my dear readers, decide to give this book a try, reach out and let me know your thoughts.

Here are links to the four other books that I read to prepare for this festival:

The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord

The Children of Paradise by Fred D'Aguiar

Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab by Shani Mootoo

Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique

Thursday morning, I will be on a plane heading to Trinidad for The Bocas Lit Fest. I'm super excited about all of the literary possibilities. If possible, I will blog while I am there. So, check back for updates.

To keep with the spirit of the Caribbean, I am going to start reading Somerset Grove by Dionne Peart, which is set in Jamaica.

Set some goals, My People.....