Customer Reviews

The Long Song: A Novel

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The horrors of chattel slavery are described in stark relief in Levy's fictional life story of a nineteenth-century Jamaican woman. Miss July, born into slavery, lives through some of Jamaica's most tumultuous events: warfare, emancipation, and the difficult transition to free labor. Miss July has endured more tragedy than most modern readers can comprehend: pulled away from her mother as a child, only to see her mother executed in the wake of a slave rebellion, Miss July's own child is given away. Ultimately Miss July finds herself in love with a dangerous white man. This book brings the horrors and brutality of slavery into full relief. It also shows how slave ownership corrupts slave owners, as we see two Britons become slave masters. This book is an accomplished family epic. It is a novel deep with emotion, and one that recreates a thoroughly believable nineteenth-century Jamaica. This is a world of tremendous violence and exploitation, yet one in which we still see tremendous human tenderness.

Writing a book set on a plantation with the dominant backdrop of slavery is a difficult thing to do. The reason is because this backdrop has been used many times by some brilliant novelists. Levy's challenge was to make something unique. Did she succeed? I think she did to some degree though Long Song certainly suffers by comparison to other novels of its ilk.

Most novels of slavery are set in the American South but this one is set in Jamaica. That's a distinguishing factor but not one that really makes much of a difference. She writes a strong lead character in July who is a "mulatto" who draws the positive attention of the mistress of the plantation. July is basically a good person but certainly, as you would expect, has no love for the white captors nor does she show appreciation that she is "relatviely" well treated. The first half of the book tells of July and how she came to draw the attention of the mistress of the plantation.

In the second half of the book, July has a love affair with the new Plantation Master who tries to be a good, open minded man but ultimately deteriorates into a man who expects the gratitude of the slaves. July loves him and he loves her and they work out an arrangement that satisfies for awhile but predictably ends terribly. The second half of the book focuses on the relationships and the unravelling of their lives on the island. It is much stronger than the first half of the book.

This is a very competently written, well researched story that is a relatively quick read. I recommend it but can't help but compare it to "The Confessions Of Nat Turner", "Beloved", "The Book of Negroes" etc. It doesn't really stand up in comparison to those superior works.

It is on the 2010 Man Booker Prize Long List and I expect it will also make the Short List and has an outside shot at claiming the prize.

The feisty Jamaican speaker of this novel is writing her life story for her son Thomas, who grew up away from "home" and became educated and trained as a printer in England. July wants him to understand the story of her life-her slavery in Jamaica-and in this way know her and their heritage better. What follows is a family history tied to Amity Plantation, where July, the mulatto daughter of a slave and a Scottish overseer, has lived with her mother. In the 1820s, July, still a child, attracts the interest of Caroline Mortimer, the sister of the owner of Amity, and she decides to train July as her maid. July grows and eventually learns to manipulate the self-centered Caroline, but Caroline becomes even more autocratic, resembling the plantation owners.

It is not until Christmas, 1831, that Jamaica's Great Slave Rebellion takes place, affecting even Amity, and changing the face of the entire country. Some fields and plantations are burned. Whites, especially preachers who have opposed slavery, are tarred and feathered by other whites. With his own loyalties in question, John Howarth unexpectedly cedes control of the plantation to the tempestuous Caroline. Slavery officially ends on July 31, 1838, and July's narrative becomes less the story of slavery in general and more the personal story of July as an adult--free, but dependent--as she uses her beauty and talents for her own ends. The workers no longer accept the plantation's demands, and full-scale rebellion by the freemen is inevitable.

Andrea Levy is a masterful writer, with a sense of drama, the ability to use it to create a lively narrative, and a fine eye for detail. Her subject of slavery, by its very nature, achieves power with very little embellishment, her characters elicit both sympathy and fury, and the novel moves quickly. Though many readers will find it a non-stop read, others may become impatient with the fact that, despite its unusual setting, it highlights injustices and atrocities similar to those in many other historical novels about slavery and plantation life. July, as the main character, is lively and intriguing, but she is not always able to keep the narrative feeling fresh and "new."

There are also problems with point of view. When Caroline first arrives, the narrator tells us what Caroline is seeing, feeling, and thinking, though July could not know that. When July's son Thomas makes suggestions regarding the finished narrative and suggests that July fill in missing information, she is sometimes frivolous and invents "facts." At other times, Levy herself fills in the blanks, in one case having Thomas's own (necessary) history included as the "excerpt" from a story "written" by his adoptive mother and published in a Baptist pamphlet in England, a device that feels like a device. The novel is well-researched, with dialogue which conveys all the emotions one would expect of conflicted characters, and ultimately, THE LONG SONG offers a view of Jamaican history which Levy's fans will celebrate. Mary Whipple

Small Island: A Novel

The Long Song is the first work I've read by Orange Prize recipient Andrea Levy, and it lived up to my expectations. A historical novel set in early 19th century Jamaica, Levy writes from deep research but with liveliness and passion. In telling the life story of a former slave named Miss July, it has a unique and interesting voice that is memorable, at the least. Stylistic quirks of this sort are either a huge boon to a book or a ball and chain, and in The Long Song, it works.

As Miss July writes her memoirs, the reader learns about how the classes and races interacted in the decline and fall of slavery in the British empire, but in a most intimate and person way. Though Miss July faced unimaginable suffering, her fearless, humorous spirit brings a sense of levity to the story. And yet, she is not such a clown that her heartbreaking losses do not impact the reader. It is a good balance for a book readers will enjoy and relate to, and not just read out of a duty to understand slavery.

If you are looking for an intelligent, page turner to read on the beach or in the gym, I'd commend The Long Song to you. As for me, I'll be adding The Small Island, Levy's award-winning novel, to my reading list and looking forward to more from this promising author.

"The Long Song," Andrea Levy's novel about 19th century Jamaica's slaves and the tenuous freedom they achieved after emancipation in 1838, has a difficult task: to make a reader see anew the conditions of slavery, conditions which have been at the center of novels from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Toni Morrison. She succeeds. Part of the reason is because of the setting. Levy vividly depicts the sugar cane plantations run by British masters and overseers, as well as the patchwork of fragile little businesses run by former slaves in the aftermath of emancipation. There is a wonderful scene in which the master of Amity Plantation, where most of the novel takes place, presides over a Christmas dinner for fellow planters, with heavy, traditional dishes from home dished up by perspiring slaves.

The real reason the novel succeeds, however, is because of its narrator, the mulatto house slave July, who writes down her story at the prompting of her prosperous son Thomas. She is often an unreliable narrator, too, glossing over parts too painful to recall until prodded by Thomas to tell the truth. Like many an elderly storyteller, she jumps ahead, meanders, or backtracks, and even moves into the present to complain about her daughter-in-law's cooking.

The story that emerges is a powerful one, and since it is told entirely from July's perspective, there is little sympathy for the white masters and mistresses, like the "fatty-batty" Caroline Mortimer, who takes a shine to young July and renames her "Marguerite," thereby lifting her into the relatively privileged stratum of the house slave but simultaneously separating her from Kitty, the mother who loves her. Most of the white characters are so unsympathetic and one-dimensional (selfish, stupid, demanding, greedy, self-pitying) that they are like characters out of a Dickens novel. It is the slaves, in July's telling, whose lives are complex.

"The Long Song" is also a novel about the perception of beauty. July's mother was raped by Tam Dewar, the white overseer. The whiteness he bequeaths his unacknowledged daughter is, sometimes, the only "possession" she has, although it also brings sorrow. The relationship between July and the overseer, then master, Robert Goodwin, who becomes obsessed by her, begins with her attempt to learn more about the "Scotch man" whom she has elevated, in her mind, to the position of an absent but caring white father. Throughout the novel, the premium the slaves place on light skin color parodies the white preoccupation with racial categories.

The Long Song is on this year's Man Booker longlist. It is in very good company with two other fine historical novels, Peter Carey's "Parrott and Olivier" and David Mitchell's "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I would hate to have to choose.
M. Feldman

The novel opens with a forward from the narrator's son. The Long Song is the story of July, who was born to a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation in the early 1800's. As a child, she's taken into the main house to become a house servant.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. July is a delightful narrator. She interjects to address the reader directly at times, but instead of detracting from the narrative, these direct interactions enhance it. July brings a lightness and humor to her story that cheered me on as a reader. Despite living through the horror of slavery and the Jamaican slave rebellion of 1832, the reader always knows July gets to a place and time to write the story we're reading. Despite the somewhat depressing setting, Levy does a wonderful job infusing life and likability into even the unlikable characters. There is nothing simple about her characterizations of people, even the slaveholders whose thoughts and actions seem unconscionable to my modern sensibilities. In fact, my favorite character was Catherine, who plucked July from her mother and brought her to live in the house and serve her.

Recommended for almost everyone, but especially fans of multicultural fiction, historical fiction and literary fiction. It's both incredibly literary and incredibly accessible as a story, which is an all too rare combination. I'm eager to read Levy's other novels too.

I became an instant fan of Andrea Levy years ago after reading Small Island when it was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Since then, I purchased all of her work and have worked my way through her entire collection with the exception of one early piece. Her latest novel, The Long Song, returns to a familiar genre (historical fiction), theme (African Diaspora), and setting (Jamaica). However, a fresh voice emerges in the form of an elderly, former slave who is encouraged to pen her autobiography when her learned and esteemed son is too busy running a successful printing business to do the deed for her. He provides her with pen, ink and occasional editorial "suggestions" that usually end in an argument of sorts. We soon learn that this spry mother and seemingly pompous son's constant bickering is the rule rather than the exception and both are quite fond and proud of each other.

This unnamed matriarch has a memory like a trap and a witty, sensible mannerism that sometimes sways toward exaggeration. The reader samples this flair immediately when reading her narration regarding the birth of July, a girl born to a slave woman and fathered by the Scottish overseer. However, even with this underlying sense of humor (which is persistent throughout the book), the cruelties and inhumanity of the trade is made clear in the scenes depicting the separation of mother from child, the torture of the punishments, the dangerous and back-breaking manual labor associated with processing sugar cane, the endless hours of servitude, and the yearning for freedom. Even Levy emulates the narrator to pull on irony to evoke the `beauty' of freedom in a physically unattractive freedman, Nimrod, and again in painting an unruly, abandoned wasteland as an Eden in the eyes of escaping slaves from the ill-named plantation, Amity, which proved to be a hellacious existence for both slaves and owners rather than the peaceful serenity its name should conjure.

The novel is rooted in factual historical events surrounding the emancipation of slaves on the island. July's life as a servant in the master's home, at the cusp of long-awaited freedom, allows the reader to glimpse the ramifications of this order and the struggles that both whites and blacks faced during this transition period. Having read a lot of historical fiction, some issues were expected and Levy's depictions were on point and reinforced with depth the unfairness and injustice of the owner's retaliation against former slaves. Her focus on the application of Christian principles with the Kinsman and Goodwin characters was particularly refreshing and eye-opening for me. It was interesting to read how these two men rationalized and justified their actions via Christian morals with two very different outcomes. Goodwin's dilemma and resolved "solution" reflected the commonly accepted beliefs of the era which a modern reader would find contradictory.

Overall, Levy delivers, as I expected she would. I think her fans would also agree with me. The only (slight) disappointment lies with the unknown fate of a secondary character. I can only hope the author offers a "second verse" to this song to offer this reader some closure in the very near future.

Reviewed by Phyllis
July 31, 2010
APOOO BookClub (Online)
Nubian Circle Book Club (Orlando, FL)

Levy captures the essence of plantation life in 19th century Jamaica, a child's journey from slavery to freedom told in a narrative with editorial adjustments by the writer's son. For all its native color and island charm, slave life on a Jamaican sugar plantation is brutal and efficient. Field slave Kitty gives birth to little July, her half-white child of an overseer, in an agony of pain, her howls bringing the wrath of the overseer upon the caterwauling woman's head. The descent of an irate overseer's machete is only averted by the importuning of the midwife calling him to reason. July is birthed at last, Kitty's pride and joy. But the much-abused Kitty's years as a mother are short-lived when the plantation owner's sister, Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, arrives from England.

Fancying the girl as a house slave, Caroline snatches the child from her mother. By the time Colonial slavery ends in 1832 after two-hundred seventy-six years, Kitty has been effectively sundered from her child, caught up in the chaos of rebellion and its aftermath, July witness to "her mama hung small and black like a ripened pod on a tree." The author of the narrative- doubtless telling her own story- puts a happier spin on July's survival from house slave to freedom, although the vigilant Thomas repeatedly cautions his mother to hew to the truth and not gloss over the daily brutality of people as chattel, the Baptist War, slave rebellion and resulting chaos, the suicide of plantation owner Thomas Howarth and the marriage of Caroline Mortimer to the new overseer of Amity plantation, Robert Goodwin.

In July's extraordinary- if temporary- life as "wife" to Goodwin under his own roof and Caroline's nose, the girl is lulled into a semblance of happiness only to be abruptly reminded of her status when Goodwin exercises the privileges of race and wealth. Levy pens July's folksy narrative (an iron fist in a velvet glove) with a decided preference for rendering endemic brutality unacknowledged (save for Thomas's reminders), an old woman's memory smoothing over the edges of her years as another's property, the hard-won and bloody freedom of the Great Slave Rebellion and the careless indifference of profit-minded plantation owners. July's spirit is saucy, independent and indomitable, but even her revisionist tendencies cannot hide the truth of a culture of enslavement, cruelty and exploitation. Levy is a unique and powerful voice for her protagonist's spirit of survival and the pride of ancestry. Luan Gaines/2011.

Kudos to the author for her unique crafting of this story. From time to time the narrator, who is actually Miss July speaks directly to the reader.Sometimes we witness an argument between her and her son Thomas as he complains of her leaving out important parts of the story, which is actually the story of slavery in Jamaica.
The author`s descriptions were often quite humourous. You had to smile when she speaks of the cart being pulled by a `ready-to-dead mule` or Linus Gray whose nose was `so pointed he could spear a fish with it`.
The last part of the story deals with Thomas, July`s son, who went to England with his adoptive family and years later returned to Jamaica and connected with his mother. We hear nothing about the daughter that was stolen from July and taken to England and this was somewhat sad.
Not a bad story but not of the calibre of `Small Island.`

The Long Song, Andrea Levy's latest novel, tells the story of a woman named July, who was born into slavery in Jamaica in the early 1800s. July's birth comes about as the result of the rape of July's mother Kitty by the overseer of the sugar plantation where Kitty is enslaved. The narrator purports to tell July's story from a third-person perspective, but it's clear almost from the beginning that she is narrating her own story. The horrors suffered by July are those we've come to expect from such slave narratives, including frequent beatings and dehumanizing living conditions. However, July's story is distinctive from other, similar stories for two reasons. First, July lives in Jamaica, a location that, unlike the American South, is relatively unexplored by slave fiction. Second, and, I think, more importantly, July's story is told with a unique respect for the practices and limitations of storytelling in general. During the novel's most dramatic scenes, the narrator describes the action from the viewpoints of multiple witnesses. This technique emphasizes the variations in memory and the different degrees of exaggeration used by various story tellers. This method breaks open the act of storytelling and shows the reader how a single event can lead to multiple tellings, each of which contain a kernel of truth. In my opinion, it is this aspect of July's story that sets The Long Song apart from other, similar novels.