![]() Yet, there is a fire in her, a kind of freedom that is not bestowed, a quiet pride that carries her forward. She doesn’t quite understand what the other slaves are talking about and she doesn’t know what to think of the things they say and do. However, she grew up quite sheltered and when she’s thrust into her role of slave, she’s unprepared for it. Growing up as a slave on a plantation, I imagine most people would be quite worldly. The thing that struck me in The Book of Night Women is Lilith’s youth. While we get glimpses into the life of a field slave, those are from afar. Homer and the six sisters (including Lilith) are house slaves and so the story mostly focuses on the relationships between the house slaves and between them and their White owners. James shows us a glimpse of the live of a slave in those days, and of the White “masters” as well. In this story, we learn a bit of Jamaican history, of the slave revolutions that occurred, and of the Maroons, slaves who escaped and created their own communities and societies in the hills of Jamaica. If you’ve read the book and are looking for a recap, you can find one here. ![]() The story is told through the perspective of Lilith, one of the house slaves. The scene is Montpelier, a plantation owned by the Wilson family and Coulibre, a plantation owned by the Roget family. ![]() ![]() It’s set in his birthplace of Jamaica during slavery, in the 1700s. The Book of Night Women is a fictional novel by Marlon James. ![]()
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