Reflection: The Book of Night Women

Though a student of History, a few years ago, I decided that I'd avoid films about black struggle and oppression like slavery, civil rights, and just racism. Why? They hurt me to my core, and made me have all sorts of emotions. It wasn't worth it, I thought. The past is passed.

Still, in 2019. I bought The Book of Night Women by Marlon James on the sole premise that the Man Booker Prize winner wrote it. But it sat there on my Kindle gathering digital dust. It's 2025, and I finally decided to read it.

Marlon James, Author

This book took me on an in-depth journey that I dreaded. The slavery, the beatings, the racism, the rape, the hate, the murder, and the indignity of it all.

What made it an enthralling read were the many storylines happening around these atrocities. The mulatto woman is confronted with a choice between her two races; one rejecting her and the other willing her to hate the other half of her. The forbidden love between the enslaved and the master. The forgiveness that one must find for a parent who raped her mother, and for a master who beat her. The revenge against those who hurt her. How a woman can use sex to weaken a powerful man. The strength and power of the black woman who plans a multi-plantation revolt. The language - words like 'bloodcloth' featured multiple times. The learning of the master's language through hidden readings. The master learning the slaves' language and customs like spells disguised as illness. The in-fighting and betrayal amongst blacks. The unravelling of the so-called purity of the white woman. The use of music to tell stories. The one who lives to tell the tale when the dust from the ash settles.

You learn a lot about plantations across St. Catherine, in particular, and the Maroons of course. Streets we know in Kingston today are mentioned. Names we have as ours today.

The reader, too, is confronted with choices amid compassion from a master. Like the main character, you remind yourself to hate, only to be overcome by love in a roller coaster of emotions.

Lillith or Lovey, Luv...her quest for freedom is brilliantly penned by Mr. James. Every chapter in this 400+ page turner leaves you wondering what's next. #readcaribbean

I am Suzette Campbell