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Marlon James is our guest blogger during the week of February 23th. If you have any questions for Marlon James, add a comment to any of his posts.
Here is some more information about The Book of Night Women:
(Read an excerpt from The Book of Night Women and watch the trailer for the book)
The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they-and she-will come to both revere and fear.
The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link.
Lilith's story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion-between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to grace the page recently-and the secret of that voice is one of the book's most intriguing mysteries.
About Marlon James:
Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970. He graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1991 with a degree in literature. His first novel, John Crow's Devil, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. James lives in Kingston.
The Book of Night Women
Marlon James - author
$26.95 | Add to Cart
Book: Hardcover | 9.25 x 6.25in | 432 pages | ISBN 9781594488573 | 19 Feb 2009 | Riverhead | 18 - AND UP
Marlon James, 
The Book of Night Women, 
Riverhead, 
Penguin Books
the term - Johnny-jumpers
I hope I am not too late in asking my question.
First - I so enjoyed The Book Of Night Women. It will surely be one of my top reads for 2009, if not the my top read.
I did a "buddy-read" with a friend and we both wondering about term - Johnny-jumpers.
While I understand the role they played - I have not heard that term before.
What is the orgin of the term?
Was this a Caribbean term that applied to specific islands?
Thanks
Beverly
Johnny Jumpers
Hi Beverly,
Johnny Jumper was just one of many names given to black slave drivers on Sugar Plantations. The term far as I know may have been Irish in origin:
"I fell to the ground and I couldn't get up
After drinking a quart of the Johnny Jump Up"
Or maybe not. It was not a general term, but it was used by Slave Owner, Thomas Thistlewood in his journals, which was a huge resource for my book.
Marlon
Thank you
Thank you for your answer.