I think of Kwame Dawes as a poet firstly - this is my first novel of his. I have read some of his poetry and seen him give poetry readings, both of which were great! The writing of this novel is very lyrical, very lovely, but I felt the book kind of meandered. I know next to nothing of Jamaican politics and history, so this made for a somewhat confusing read. If you like Jamaican writers, I think you'd like this book. ( )

Set in Jamaica in the 1980’s this is a story of upheaval.

It begins with our protagonist, Ferron, transporting his father’s body to a funeral home. It’s unclear how he died – an accident, a medical mistake, or murder from the right wing party currently in power with a hit list against the former left wing politicians whom Ferron’s father was one.

Ferron is also struggling as a victim of an assault of his own. He was beaten and his fiancé, whom he was unable to protect, was taken away and raped. Ferron finds his guilt prevents him from giving his fiancé the support she needs. Was this another political assault or a random event?

I enjoyed the portrait of Jamaica and thought the characterizations were good.

But I found the audio confusing. The story jumps backward and forward in time; many of the chapters begin with writings from Ferron’s father’s journal.

I actually listened to this book twice to try to make better sense of it and the second time through did make it clearer. Perhaps this is one that works better in print than in audio.

3 stars.

I received a copy of the audiobook through LIbraryThing’s Early Reviewers program in exchange for an unbiased review. ( )

This is one of those rare books for which I can't pin down my response. The characters were interesting, the structure moving back and forth in time and using different forms made piecing together the overall narrative in my head a compelling and rewarding puzzle. But at the end, I just wasn't completely sure what I'd been through. The final section of the book is a great read, but seems so different from the rest of the book that's I found it hard to reconcile them. (I received an audiobook copy of this title via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program—it may be easier to weave the strands together if one is reading the print version.) ( )

This was not an easy book for me to follow, but I was on a long road trip and had a lot of time to just go back and listen to sections again. I would then go on after having that, "a ha moment". I enjoyed it a lot. ( )

I received an audiobook, and the accents were good but sometimes inconsistent. I had trouble keeping interested in the story. It just never grabbed my attention. It seems kind of depressed and masucline and I was unable to relate to it. ( )