Great praise from NY Times for his latest novel:
Dear readers,
You’ll be hearing about Marlon James’s new novel, “The Disappearers,” if you haven’t already. Our critic Dwight Garner called this masterpiece “the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far.”
The novel follows a group of actors staging a play in 1980s Kingston, Jamaica — John Herbert’s “Fortune and Men’s Eyes,” which is set in a prison and is frank in its depiction of sex and violence. During a rehearsal, the actors are brutalized by a sadistic, bigoted mob. None of them emerge from the experience unchanged. The novel follows them as they stagger into the aftermath, seeking revenge, absolution, love, even quietude.
“The Disappearers” seethes. The cultural and literary allusions studded throughout impart a sense of hyperreality. (Where else will you encounter a haunting recitation of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” alongside odes to Kurt Cobain?) Somehow, James’s author’s note at the end — “The novel is total fiction. The novel actually happened” — makes perfect sense.
Garner, in his review, said “The Disappearers” was “one of the signal reading experiences of my adult life.” What a good opportunity to reflect. What were mine?