Bob Marley: The Untold Story

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Although a Jamaican character makes fun of a white character who says something similar, I've got to say that the language the Jamaicans use--even when they "chat bad" or speak crudely, is pure poetry. It's not just the lilting Jamaican accent, but also their distinctive use of words that makes it so. Marlon James, born in Kingston, Jamaica, is a very gifted writer. And obviously, he can write about Jamaica with authority, as well as about Jamaicans in New York City. I've finally made it through my re-read! This was my first Marlon James book I read when I got an advance copy before it's release. I was a bit lukewarm on it but after it became a big award winner and I later fell in love with his writing in his other books, I decided to try this one again. Unfortunately, I had a similar experience. The book is just a little too tedious and not as compelling as his other novels. I did really appreciate the Josey Wales, Weeper, Alex, and Eubie characters much more this time, so I wanted to give it an extra star. But once the narrative moves to New York City, once again my interest plummeted and reading became a chore. It's just not as interesting as the Jamaican-set part of the book. And the "Nina Burgess" character and the constant reinvention of herself is still the most fascinating part of the novel.

Arriving in Kingston in the late 1950s, Marley lived in Trench Town, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. He struggled in poverty, but he found inspiration in the music around him. Trench Town had a number of successful local performers and was considered the Motown of Jamaica. Sounds from the United States also drifted in over the radio and through jukeboxes. Marley liked such artists as Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino and the Drifters. I don't know how to review this book. It isn't like any other book. It shares much in common with many others. Psychopathic criminals, corrupt politicians, the meddling of the US into foreign affairs, guns, gangs and girls who just don't matter. But it is so much more than the sum of its parts. It is the writing which soars brilliantly above all the five star books I've read this year except for The Book of Night Women, also by Marlon James. Also the first chapter is narrated by Sir Arthur George Jennings, a Jamaican politician, that appears as a ghost since he was murdered. And those other voices have their own fascination, so much so that, by the time Marley’s cancer lifts him out of the book halfway through, he feels like the peripheral figure. He continues to haunt the story, James detailing his slow death with real power and emotion, particularly the horror of the foot injury that preceded it: “Every night you stomp down Babylon from the stage, your right boot fills near the brim with blood.” But by this point all those other voices have taken on so much personality of their own, we want to follow them too. The story begins before the election the 1976 election. Thankfully Paul, my husband, listened to the first half of this book 'with' me. It was supportive to have conversationsThe storyline is anything but simple, told from multiple viewpoints, but basically some people killed ‘the Singer’ and nobody knows why. But while we are looking for answers, we get a whole lotta reasons for why people want to be close to the Singer or are jealous of him or are afraid of him. And it is these things that become the story. btw The reason I do updates in the review box is because regular updates don't save and I want to be able to reread one day how I experienced the book as I read it, not just with hindsight. Karen mentioned this in her review, and an unnamed person from Goodreads disagreed with her in person, but I think he’s wrong. A Brief History of Seven Killings is a historical novel right out of the James Ellroy realm. I don’t know if it is because Karen asked me if I thought this was like James Ellroy when she was reading it a couple of months ago that it grabbed me almost immediately as being a maximilist cousin to the historical novels of Ellroy, but a strong argument could be made that this book is basically a Jamaican version of American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand. anything you want to know about Kingston’s green versus orange war, everything you ever need to know about the rudeboy-cum-gunman is not in Bob Marley’s lyrics or in Peter Tosh’s but in Marty Robbins’s “Big Iron.” He’s” This extensive biography therefore gives us not only the interesting details of Marley's childhood, upbringing, rise in the Jamaican music underground, and eventual international success, it also gives us a thorough depiction of the history of the Jamaican island and its politics, the spirituality and politics of Haile Selassie, the particulars of rastafarian practices, a full accounting of Marley's parents and their families, and a down-and-dirty play-by-play of the legal and familial ripples that carried Marley's legacy into the future after his death. ❤️

I do not deem it necessary to know about the political dynamics of the Jamaica of the time, however it is a great helper, and it will immerse the reader even more into what is like being in a country were the streets rule the politics, since this novel is a war of “isms” (capitalism, socialism, communism, et al). Like all good music writers, White spends a decent amount of time nerding out on the specifics of Marley's music. I know very little about music theory but love reading writers who elaborate on the subtleties of melodies or the emotional edge to vocals in a specific performance. Good music writers put some kind of poetry into the discussion of what makes the music "great;" it's the poetry i understand better than the message. 🤓An exhaustively researched yet staggeringly incomplete book, it's much more valuable as a look into Jamaican and Rastafarian history than it is about the man it proposes to immortalize. I’m a really, really, really ambitious writer,” he told Vogue. “Why not? I did set out to write a big novel. I tried to write what I thought was a great novel. Whether it succeeded or not, it’s not up to me to decide that. Yeah, I was playing big game.”

Because it is a biography, it gets average marks for the sheer amount of data available, especially in the appendices, but readers should practice skepticism when reading it. Unfortunately, it's largest negative comes from the fact that most of the story ignores Marley's musical inspiration and methodology in favor of secondary stories full of obvious speculation, making one wonder if the author actually cared about the musician's music in the first place. From the hills of rural Jamaica, blending visionary musical talent and revolutionary zeal, Bob Marley set out to touch the world with his inspirational musical message and soul stirring advocacy for the oppressed. With unlimited access to Marley’s superlative songs of love and unity, the multi award-winning team of Lee Hall (writer), Clint Dyer (director) and Arinzé Kene (playing Bob Marley) embody the militant spirit and moving story of one of music’s most significant cultural figures. A sensational company of performers combine with the very best reggae musicians to bring this inspirational tale of passion, political transformation and enduring hope from Trenchtown to the West End. A huge international success, Uprising (1980) featured "Could You Be Loved" and "Redemption Song." Known for its poetic lyrics and social and political importance, the pared down, folk-sounding "Redemption Song" was an illustration of Marley's talents as a songwriter. One line from the song reads: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds."The lead-up, once you get into the groove of the patois and get a grip on the who’s-who of the cast, is fantastic. The novel is alive, teeming with characters and places that are entirely believable. I think the use of different perspectives, different voices, and different social classes helps to make the world James has re-created feel tenable. Patois dialect is fabulous. I don't think I could have read this 'without' the audiobook's help. Following everything along with only the physical book would have made the experience harder - and more dry. The sprawling story has several timelines and locations, and a large and varying cast of characters. There's even a ghost, Sir Arthur George Jennings, a fictitious murdered white Jamaican politician, who reappears at various points in the story. Wow I read this within 24 hours, on a very bleak, foggy and cold Sunday. The prose of this book is straightforward and I was already familiar with Bob Marley's life story due to the many documentaries I watched. I remember the first time I found out that Bob Marley had so many children by different women and that his first and only wife Rita Marley stayed with him until his death, I wondered how did she do that?