The Book of Night Women - A History Lesson on Jamaica and How to Speak Jamaican

I just finished reading The Book of Night Women,a novel by Marlon James, and I could not put it down. The book was fascinating because of the story, but also because the book written in the way that people speak Jamaican Patois. At least, 18th Century patois. The book takes the reader on a journey that so many people can imagine that happened many times throughout history, but from a very unique perspective. Chapter 1 opens with a young 13 year-old slave girl dying while giving birth to a green-eyed daughter, Lilith. We soon realize that Lilith is not your average slave girl for more reasons than her green eyes. Lilith's story is the main focal point of the book while also being a seemingly accurate account of the hard living and harder dying of late 18th century Jamaican sugar cane plantation life.What makes The Book of Night Women special is that it is a historical novel narrated from the prospective of the slave, Lilith in Jamaican patois. Lilith's story is one so typical
of slave life in the New World, especially under British rule. She is orphaned at birth and raised by other slaves under cruel and dirty conditions. As the green eyed Lilith ages, she starts to draw unwanted attention and this brings real problems for her. After a violent incident, Lilith is forced to work in the house as opposed to the field, but even the house has problems. Lilith eventually oversteps her boundaries as she goes against the warning of other slaves and campaigns for the master's attention and affection. These happenings highlight some of the very complex social structures in Jamaica and other slave societies. The Book of Night Women does a great job of building a story around all of the players and structures in Neo-Tropical slavery. Through Lilith's interactions you witness the relationships between the slaves (house, field), whites (plantation owners, overseers, women, men), Maroons (runaway slaves living in small communities, and Africans (Ashanti, Igbo,
etc.). All while Lilith is going through trials and tribulations, the sub-plot of a slave revolt is brewing due to the Haitian Revolution.To clarify where the title comes from, The Night Women is a group of women working together and plotting revenge with other cooperating slave women for a multi-plantation rebellion. Lilith's presence in the group causes a level of uneasiness because of confusion over who she is loyal to. She has connections to the slaves, some whites and to a certain man. The rest you will have to find out by reading!What makes this book so great is the very authentic account of a mulatto slave woman in colonial Jamaican and in Patois. This is really exciting for the anyone that wants to speak Jamaican because you can actually get it in practice. It is important to get the audiobook version of the book if you want to really get the context and content of the patois dialect. This is a very intense, graphic book that will really expose you to the saga of a s
lave in Jamaica. It is highly recommended.

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