John Crow's Devil

This novel depicts, with very gory and startling detail, the true life of Protestant, Pentecostalist, small-town, country people in mid-20th-century Jamaica, who are completely caught up between misguided perceptions of what is good and evil and the plague of superstition and mysticism. As was mentioned before: if you enjoy Toni Morrison, you will enjoy this read. If you have no clue as to the ins and outs of Jamaica's overly "Christian" culture and the captivating politics of beauty and race on this island-nation, then this book will serve, as was mentioned in other reviews, as a frightening, yet quite real, introduction.

This book is nothing like anything I expected. It is very well written. I am amazed that this is a new author.

Mr. James's use of language is musical and it immersed me solidly within the conflicts between good and evil in his novel. The settings he described were vivid, characters well drawn, and he never gave me the opportunity to yawn. It was one of the few books I had to complete in one sitting. I believe this first novel will be a collectable and I am looking forward to the next.

To read John Crow's Devil is to be entertained, shocked, enlightened and put in awe by James' stunning prose. In his first novel, this writer has already established himself as a writer to watch -- a prose style similar in meticulous artistry to Toni Morrison. Set in the fictional town of Gibbeah, James' story of two ministers battling for the hearts and minds of a community that has lost its way is full of pulse-pounding moments that raise arm hairs (crow attacks, dove attacks, and mob mentality moments that make The Lottery look tame in comparison). Characters such as the widow, who lost her husband and her faith, the rum preacher, the drunk on whose shoulder's Gibbeah's salvation rests, and Lucinda, a woman torn between Christian morality and the lures of black magic, will never leave my mind. There is humor, horror and poignancy. JCD is not a G-rated story, but the sex, scat and violence are part of what gives the story its heat and atmosphere. There are times when you couldn't put it down if you tried.

If you are Jamaican, you will love this book, if you're not, this is a really good introduction to Jamaica. Though the story is fictional the characters are everywhere in this island. From the Pastor to the Apostle to Backra to the Obeyah woman, the characters were so well developed in the book that as a Jamaican I laughed at all the connections to real people I could make. All the little things that are authentically Jamaican will seem so true to one from the island, like the fact that a pastor is seen as a higher authority than everyone else and that he really can rule the place. As I read this book, I had those moments where I giggled to myself and moments where I laughed till tears came out of my eyes. Then there were the moments where I was just holding my breath and moments where I got truly vexed. For that, I enjoyed John Crow's Devil. What made me really love it though, is that it uses Proper English spelling with Patois grammer which made it an easy flow in my Jamaican brain but for those who don't speak Patois, you will understand it just as well. That little tiny thing, for me just says, as much as I know that non-Jamaicans will be reading it, I'm not abandoning home. Much Ratings on this project. I am just waiting to read the next one.