Customer Reviews

John Crow's Devil

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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Mr. James's use of language is musical and it immersed me solidly within the conflicts between good and evil in his novel.
The settings he described were vivid, characters well drawn, and he never gave me the opportunity to yawn. It was one of the few books I had to complete in one sitting. I believe this first novel will be a collectable and I am looking forward to the next.

If you are Jamaican, you will love this book, if you're not, this is a really good introduction to Jamaica.

Though the story is fictional the characters are everywhere in this island. From the Pastor to the Apostle to Backra to the Obeyah woman, the characters were so well developed in the book that as a Jamaican I laughed at all the connections to real people I could make. All the little things that are authentically Jamaican will seem so true to one from the island, like the fact that a pastor is seen as a higher authority than everyone else and that he really can rule the place.

As I read this book, I had those moments where I giggled to myself and moments where I laughed till tears came out of my eyes. Then there were the moments where I was just holding my breath and moments where I got truly vexed. For that, I enjoyed John Crow's Devil. What made me really love it though, is that it uses Proper English spelling with Patois grammer which made it an easy flow in my Jamaican brain but for those who don't speak Patois, you will understand it just as well. That little tiny thing, for me just says, as much as I know that non-Jamaicans will be reading it, I'm not abandoning home.

Much Ratings on this project. I am just waiting to read the next one.

With its sensational elements, this novel could easily become a popular movie, with lots of action. At the same time, the language is pure poetry. The author incorporates the patois of Jamaican folk with the most lyrical of English prose. (It is not unlike Toni Morrison's Sula in that respect). By juxtaposing sex and religion as his themes, he hits at the most sensitive universal points we humans face. I hope we hear more from this talented young writer from Jamaica.

This story about the struggle for the soul of a small Jamaican village evokes the dreamlike particularity of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the driving inevitability of Faulkner's major novels. But the voice is unique to Marlon James, and it's the voice, rather the many voices, ranging from poor folk patois to high flown hermeneutics, that make this novel special.

Hector Bligh, the Rum Preacher, presides over the pulpit of the village's Christian Church. Bligh, lost in fog of guilt and alcohol, is a barely credible messenger of God. During service one Sunday, a stranger bursts into the church and physically tosses Bligh out into the street. The stranger, Apostle York, tells the congregation he's been sent to put the village back on a proper spiritual path. Over time, the sacrifices York asks from the faithful get greater, and the price for disobedience rises sharply. Pastor Bligh sinks to the depths, but he's given a hand up by the Widow Greenfield, and eventually finds the will to struggle back. Sober, connected again to spiritual power from multiple sources, he's ready to fight to reclaim his church.

James flits in and out of a lot of minds. He's particularly good with the main female character, Lucinda, who's caught between love of God and lust for Apostle York, between the spiritual light of day and the darkness of obeah magic. And we care for the Widow Greenfield, who can't keep compassion from seeping into her sealed-off heart. A rarely seen technique is the way James uses the collective voice of the village as a kind of Greek chorus that comments on the struggle between the Pastor and the Apostle. This voice is fearful, ignorant, credulous - prime fodder for York's emerging cult.

The book contains many graphic scenes. Fluids from many bodies gush, flow, spurt. The language is raw; neither the reader's nor the characters' feelings get spared. But all of it is in service to the plot: the battle between the Pastor and the Apostle comes to a climax; Lucinda's internal struggles get resolved; and we learn why York showed up at this particular dusty country crossroad in the first place.

This is a powerful novel. The writing is strong and original. The shifts in setting and point of view are handled with aplomb. Even more impressive, it's James' fiction debut. He's a writer to watch.

To read John Crow's Devil is to be entertained, shocked, enlightened and put in awe by James' stunning prose. In his first novel, this writer has already established himself as a writer to watch -- a prose style similar in meticulous artistry to Toni Morrison.
Set in the fictional town of Gibbeah, James' story of two ministers battling for the hearts and minds of a community that has lost its way is full of pulse-pounding moments that raise arm hairs (crow attacks, dove attacks, and mob mentality moments that make The Lottery look tame in comparison). Characters such as the widow, who lost her husband and her faith, the rum preacher, the drunk on whose shoulder's Gibbeah's salvation rests, and Lucinda, a woman torn between Christian morality and the lures of black magic, will never leave my mind. There is humor, horror and poignancy.
JCD is not a G-rated story, but the sex, scat and violence are part of what gives the story its heat and atmosphere. There are times when you couldn't put it down if you tried.

Wow. I truly enjoyed reading this book. I found it well written and it carried me from beginning to end without a hitch. It was quite a ride! I did find myself reading out loud quite a bit - pronouncing the lingo/slang/pidgen words aloud so I could try to understand or hear what they sounded like or meant. Some words I looked up in on-line dictionaries as I wasn't sure exactly what they meant. (woe to us Pacific Northwest folks...) I can easily imagine this book as a movie - the characters were (and still are) very vivid in my minds eye as I read through it.

This book is nothing like anything I expected. It is very well written. I am amazed that this is a new author.

A very good read. Impressive work and really captures the feeling of a small town. Solid description and right on point dialogue. A must read for those who gives too much power and trust to pastors in these small towns or even big town for that matter. very relevant

In what can be seen as the classic struggle between good and evil, James brings something classic too light in his own way. Adding lyrical prose with musical words he brings us to a point where we can wonder if what know is good really is and its inverse.

More than well written, James brings Jamaican living to full life

I picked up this book based on positive reviews it had received online (I believe via Bookslut), and I was not disappointed. It reminded me at times of Graham Greene's The Power and The Glory (one of my favorite novels, and another book about struggles with faith and religion gone wrong), and as other reviewers have noted, it's the kind of book that is hard to put down. It's also a harrowing story about abuses of power, which can make the novel's images hard to confront at times. The Book Of Night Women may be his current calling card, but James' work here is also worth your time.