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The Long Song: A Novel, by Andrea Levy
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THE AUTHOR OF SMALL ISLAND TELLS THE STORY OF THE LAST TURBULENT YEARS OF SLAVERY AND THE EARLY YEARS OF FREEDOM IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY JAMAICA
Small Island introduced Andrea Levy to America and was acclaimed as “a triumph” (San Francisco Chronicle). It won both the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and has sold over a million copies worldwide. With The Long Song, Levy once again reinvents the historical novel.
Told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July, with some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, The Long Song is at once defiant, funny, and shocking. The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, decides to move her into the great house and rename her “Marguerite.”
Resourceful and mischievous, July soon becomes indispensable to her mistress. Together they live through the bloody Baptist war, followed by the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Taught to read and write so that she can help her mistress run the business, July remains bound to the plantation despite her “freedom.” It is the arrival of a young English overseer, Robert Goodwin, that will dramatically change life in the great house for both July and her mistress. Prompted and provoked by her son’s persistent questioning, July’s resilience and heartbreak are gradually revealed in this extraordinarily powerful story of slavery, revolution, freedom, and love.
- Sales Rank: #1041733 in Books
- Brand: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Published on: 2010-04-27
- Released on: 2010-04-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.33" h x 1.24" w x 6.26" l, 1.13 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
- Great product!
From Publishers Weekly
A distinctive narrative voice and a beguiling plot distinguish Levy's fifth novel (after Orange Prize–winning Small Island). A British writer of Jamaican descent, Levy draws upon history to recall the island's slave rebellion of 1832. The unreliable narrator pretends to be telling the story of a woman called July, born as the result of a rape of a field slave, but it soon becomes obvious that the narrator is July herself. Taken as a house slave when she's eight years old, July is later seduced by the pretentiously moralistic English overseer after he marries the plantation's mistress; his clergyman father has assured him that a married man might do as he pleases. Related in July's lilting patois, the narrative encompasses scenes of shocking brutality and mass carnage, but also humor, sometimes verging on farce. Levy's satiric eye registers the venomous racism of the white characters and is equally candid in relating the degrees of social snobbery around skin color among the blacks themselves, July included. Slavery destroys the humanity of everyone is Levy's subtext, while the cliffhanger ending suggests (one hopes) a sequel. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Before opening a book on slavery, many readers must brace themselves, knowing from past experience the emotional toll it is likely to take. The Long Song, however, strikes an altogether different tone from that of Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) or Marlon James's The Book of Night Women (HHHH May/June 2009). Peppered with humor and her trademark wit, Levy's fifth novel paints "a vivid and persuasive portrait of Jamaican slave society" (New York Times) that is highly readable and rarely depressing. Only the Miami Herald critic disagreed, describing some characters as "caricatures" and the author's light tone as ill-conceived. Still, most agreed with the Boston Globe's assessment that "[t]hrough all her trials July's joie de vivre shines."
From Booklist
In the inexplicable absence of a definitive and revelatory history of Jamaica’s nearly 300 years of slavery, Levy gamely steps into the void with the lively and engaging novel of Miss July, a slave born on the ironically named Amity sugar plantation. The mulatto child of a black slave and her white overseer, July’s destiny was that of a canefield laborer until Caroline Mortimer took over the plantation upon the death of her brother. Renamed the more genteel “Marguerite,“ July is promoted to the manor house, which brings her into contact with the new overseer, Robert Goodwin. More liberal than his lusty predecessors, Robert not only fails to abuse July, he also falls in love with her. Yet when the institution of slavery is abolished by royal decree, Goodwin’s attempts to gainfully employ his former slaves end tragically for all concerned. Charming, alarming, Levy’s vibrant historical novel shimmers with all the artifice and chicanery slave owners felt compelled to exert. --Carol Haggas
Most helpful customer reviews
41 of 46 people found the following review helpful.
The Horrors of Slavery
By LH422
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.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Well Written But Treads Little New Ground
By Richard Pittman
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.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
A Bittersweet Symphony
By Kristen Stewart
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.
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