This book keeps getting better. It's very strange to read a really amazing book with writing beyond anything you could imagine. And then it gets better.

As someone who grew up listening to the music of Bob Marley, I put this one on my list as soon as I came across it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag for me... the challenging part - for me - was getting situated. at first, the chapters just come at you hard, without context of who these characters are in relation to each other. there is a very handy "cast of characters" section in the beginning but even then, i was lost for quite some time before i managed to understand the connective threads. and you might not have this problem - when i started this i was still on my delicious post-op percocet, so i admit there was some blurriness and some dulling to my cognitive capabilities. but the first chapter is narrated by a ghost for goodness' sake, and then goes right into the voice of a fourteen year old jamaican boy witnessing extreme violence and mentioning characters named, among others, "shotta sherrif," "josey wales," and "doctor love," before the next chapter swerves you into the story of a middle-aged white american man in a fast food restaurant in jamaica and by now your head is spinning with "what have i gotten myself into???" The 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. For their next tour, the Wailers performed with I-Threes, a female group whose members included Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt and Marley's wife, Rita. Now called Bob Marley & The Wailers, the group toured extensively and helped increase reggae's popularity abroad. In Britain in 1975, they scored their first Top 40 hit with "No Woman, No Cry." Meh have a right, a right to equality and humanity; gwan fight hard like rahtid to stay alive an' save meh soul.

I really liked this book because it went into great detail about Bob Marley's life. I learned a lot about Bob Marley that I had not known before I read this book. I enjoyed reading about how he became successful by making reggae music become popular throughout the world. I liked the fact that Bob Marley was dedicated to his beliefs and his faith. He expressed these things in his music, and he wanted people to understand the deep message built into his lyrics. Lazar, Zachary (23 October 2014). "Sunday Book Review: 'A Brief History of Seven Killings,' by Marlon James". The New York Times . Retrieved 7 March 2015.

The characters are so well-drawn and so realistic written in their own unique patois. This was my second ride on this merry-go-round and I bombaclot loved it. Again. The book is so big and so complex that I HIGHLY recommend a second reading to fully appreciate the links between the characters and plotlines, sort of like I would also recommend for similarly layered masterpieces like Conversation in the Cathedral, Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, etc. And his voice…it is hard to describe the seeing-ness of his voice. It seems almost trite to say he got the woman thing. He got everybody’s thing. James says Nina Burgess was the voice that most clearly expressed what he as an author was thinking, but it was Kim Clarke speaking in February of 1979 (the first voice in a section called Shadow Dancin’) that broke my heart in two. 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. Update I've just watched Autopsy: Bob Marley. Watching the true story of the politics and events surrounding the attempted assassination on Bob Marley involving the CIA, made this book, even in retrospect, really come alive. The spin the author put on it, was the same conclusion as the documentary, although they were very circumspect about putting it. It doesn't matter whether you read the book or see the programme first, each adds to the other. But this book is complicated - beyond devastating - yet often extremely engaging. The voices were piercing-dramatic at times....so real - so raw- absolutely riveting terrific.White not only provides intimate insights to Marley, his life, family and musical journey, but also documents the history of Jamaica and its people, the politics and the fascinating origins of the Rastafarian religion. The broad sweep of this book, written with authority and eloquence by the one time editor of 'Billboard' magazine, should delight all who read it. A short review from the San Francisco Chronicle says it all, "Probably the finest biography ever written about a popular musician."