The Long Song: Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

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As with the Holocaust, unless your family history is enmeshed in it – and possibly not even then; I am fortunate enough not to know in either case – it is impossible to comprehend the scale of suffering involved in the transatlantic slave trade. And easy to look away if someone tries to teach you. Levy was the daughter of mixed race parents who emigrated from the Caribbean to England in the 1960s and the interactions between the immigrant (coloured) and the host (white) cultures are the subject of all her novels. Based on the award-winning novel by the late Andrea Levy ( Small Island), the fictional story is inspired by Levy’s family history. Levy was born in England to Jamaican parents who arrived in Britain in 1948. “I’ve always used my books as a personal journey to understand my Caribbean heritage – and with that sooner or later you have to confront slavery,” Levy said.

The Long Song by Andrea Levy | Goodreads

The Long Song is simultaneously the life-affirming story of one woman’s battle to survive in terrible circumstances, and a tribute to the legions of slaves who did more than suffer and die, but also managed to squeeze all they possibly could out of the bleakest of circumstances.’ Andrea Levy’s bittersweet novel about the last days of slavery in Jamaica is powerful and intimate - and full of mischievous surprise. The story unfolds at the Amity sugar plantation, where the strong-willed July is working as a lady’s maid for Caroline Mortimer. When Robert Goodwin, a new overseer at Amity arrives, both July and Caroline are intrigued by his revolutionary spirit and intent to improve the working conditions on the plantation. But the winds of change across the hot plantation fields end up not being without consequences. Despite hating the main character, July, as I think she was a spoiled brat who didn't appreciate what was given to her, I couldn't help but feel pity towards her. She did lead a hard life, as her choices were taken away from her even before she was born - although some of the choices she could make where not the best ones. But one must not judge, specially if never having been through a similar situation.It was a fine ambition from a noble old woman for whom many of her years were lived in harsh circumstance. This wish demanded respect. mp_sf_list_4_description: See The Long Song on MASTERPIECE on PBS in three episodes, Sundays, January 31, February 7 and 14, 2021 at a special time – 10pm ET. Watch each episode online in the general streaming window for 14 days, starting the night of the broadcast premiere. After that, enjoy The Long Song, and a selection of other MASTERPIECE shows, when you watch with PBS Passport, an added member benefit. Here is what bothered me the most. Every action and even every sentence reflected a hidden, subversive intention. Nobody and nothing that happened is presented honestly. Every action had a hidden meaning, always dishonest and often cruel or mean. I say, if you hate someone, tell them and/or give them a punch, but do not do something that appears friendly but in fact causes pain. I want the meanness and anger upfront, not hidden and not disguised! Violence and brutality run through the novel and Levy opens with a serious sexual assault, from which the novel’s narrator, July, is born. Discuss how gender plays a role in the novel and its wider historical events. Do you think women were more vulnerable than men?

Long Song review – a sharp, painful look at the last days The Long Song review – a sharp, painful look at the last days

The novel explores the complex dynamics between enslaved individuals and their captors. Despite the gulf between them, their lives run in parallel, tightly entwined. How does the novel depict power imbalances and the effects of oppression on both sides? The Long Song is a historical novel by Andrea Levy published in 2010 that was the recipient of the Walter Scott Prize. It was Levy's fifth and final novel, following the 2004 publication of Small Island. In December 2018, a three-part television adaptation of the same name was broadcast on BBC One; The Long Song was aired on PBS in February 2021. The Long Song is written as a memoir by an elderly Jamaican woman living in early 19th-century Jamaica during the final years of slavery and the transition to freedom that took place thereafter. It tells the tale of a young slave girl, July, who lives at Amity – a sugarcane plantation. She lived through the 1831 Baptist War, and then the beginning of freedom. Her mother, Kitty; the slaves working the plantation land; and the owner of the plantation, the white woman Caroline Mortimer, are other characters in the novel. [1] Themes [ edit ] However much we are entertained by July, we never lose sight of her courage, her tenacity, her life-affirming spirit, and through them we see the qualities that all those who survived and eventually thrived in that harsh period must have had in abundance. Levy never fails to get her message through clearly. That she can do so without a hint of didactism or of overwrought sentimentality says much about her ability as a writer of our times and of our sometimes inglorious past. See The Long Song on MASTERPIECE on PBS in three episodes, Sundays, January 31, February 7 and 14, 2021 at a special time – 10pm ET. Watch each episode online in the general streaming window for 14 days, starting the night of the broadcast premiere. After that, enjoy The Long Song, and a selection of other MASTERPIECE shows, when you watch with PBS Passport, an added member benefit.Hall of Fame inductees are chosen based on factors including musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career, superiority in style and ... The Long Song is a thoroughly captivating novel… As well as being beautifully written The Long Song is a thoroughly researched historical novel that is both powerful and heartbreaking.” Para mí el punto fuerte de Levy como escritora es su gran capacidad para ambientar la obra de forma que los elector acabe transportado a la Jamaica del siglo XIX. Uno se encuentra en medio de una vorágine de calor sofocante que se pega a la piel, frutas exóticas de sabores poderosos, colores vibrantes y vegetación exuberante. Una vorágine en la que la en la que la dicotomía entre blancos y negros, ya no solo en lo histórico, aspecto que se nota muy cuidado y estudiado. También se siente transportado a lo que era la vida en una plantación de azúcar de la Jamaica de la época y en como era la vida en la isla, con una sociedad de negros con sus propias normas y convenciones sociales y sus propias maneras de hacer y ver las cosas. Pero sobre todo, el lector puede sentir como fueron esos últimos años de esclavitud y como se llevó acabo la emancipación de los habitantes de la isla, la forma en que estos dos mundos chocaron y se enfrentaron salvajemente entre sí, la manera en que los negros lucharon y pelearon por su libertad y por la posibilidad de ser independientes en todos los sentidos, frente a los prejuicios y la incomprensión de los blancos. Starred Review. An elegant allegory of storytelling . . . A subtly observed, beautifully written, structurally complex novel—an impressive follow-up to Small Island. Which brings me to the next concern, frankly, I didn't connect with any of the characters in the story. I truly wanted to do so. Though July tries to make lemonade out her life's worth of lemons. Her spin doesn't feel true. She has suffered greatly, yet, she doesn't seem impacted.