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I looked at the pdf of this fictional novel yesterday and sighed. I thought I had escaped the stress of reading Shakespearean English but here is another kind of ache, a book written in a type of English that I think is peculiar to Jamaicans. [Apologies if I’m wrong]
The book The Book of Night Women is a recommended text in my literature class, under the topic Issues in Caribbean Fiction. The book is authored by James Marlon and it’s a total of 343 pages.
I felt a little bored when I saw the type of English used but I decided to give it the benefit of doubt and read in. As a natural lover of literature and a curious reader, my interest was piqued in no time. To make my reading much more worthwhile, I’ve decided to be a story reteller by sharing a summary of each chapter here. First, I’m doing this because I think this will help me get through the rest of the pages. Additionally, I’m aware there are people who dislike reading books with many pages and one with a type of diction that will take a while or two to comprehend. So please be my audience!
Original book cover
Summary of Chapter 1
A child is born and her name is Lilith. She is described as black in complexion and has an unusual colour of eyes, green. Her mother, the one I know, dies while bringing her to life but Lilith lives with Cerci and Tantalus, the mother and father that she knows. Sometimes she is fed but most times Cerci cooks for herself alone so Lilith tiptoes to steal leftover potatoes when everyone has gone to bed.
The little girl seems to have a mind of her own as she opposes societal opinion especially ones that require the girl-child becoming less so the male can be more.
That woman. That girl. People recall when she was still a little pickney
on the Montpelier Estate, them few years when a nigger not black, playing
rounders with boys. She swing the club, clap the ball clear ’cross the field
and make one run to all four base and beat the boys but couldn’t understand
when the wet nurse slap her and say that a good girl was supposed to make
manchild win. Lilith cuss and ask if manchild can’t win if girl don’t lose and she get another slap.
-Page 11-
Everyone thinks Lilith is too big to play with kids but she thinks herself a kid just as others irrespective of her size. She is described as too spirited as she let no one bully her. Once a boy hit her while they played, she pounced on him and wouldn’t let go till the crowd hit her hand loose.
You titty big like yam, a niggerboy tell her when they
playing. And you balls little like cherry, she say to him. The little boy punch
her and she jump ’pon him like wild dog and nobody could pull her off until
they beat her hand to let go of him balls.
-page 13-
As Lilith grows, she can no longer really play with white kids as everyone is now aware of their identity and race. Meanwhile, in their younger days, they always played pirates together and no one said “you are black and I am white”.
At age fourteen, things begin to happen. Lilith thinks she’s in trouble and cries out in fear but life was just happening.
…all of a sudden she feel wet, wet, wet. Blood slip from
her like whisper and run down her leg.
-page 14-
She goes to Circe to tell her what’s happening but cannot find the words to explain her plight. Circe tries to push her away but suddenly sees the blood running down her legs.
Shithouse. You turn woman now, she say.
From then Lilith couldn’t go nowhere, nor talk to nobody, most of all
boy.
Lilith grows used to the changes occurring in her body. Seeing that children are the only people not enslaved in the estate, she used clothes to try to suppress her breasts from shooting out.
Eventually Lilith learns from the women who are washing by the river that Cerci and Tantalus are not her biological parents, this explains the reason she doesn’t resemble either of them and the way they treat her.
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Cerci, lives in Montpelier estate which is governed by Jack Wilkins who appoints other black men to oversee other slaves. They are called Johnny - Jumpers. They beat field workers who do not work with haste and raid slave houses taking their food and raping women when they please. The field workers work tirelessly in the scorching sun which makes their already dark skin darker.
Jack Wilkins the governor, visits Cerci and sees Lilith. He demands that she starts work at the field the next day. The girl knows what goes down in the field and wouldn’t like to go so she pretends to be sick the next day. Cerci brings Homer to check her.
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Homer recommends a tea for Lilith and after she takes it, she goes out to peep at other field workers as Cerci has gone out. As she retreats inside, she finds a negro waiting for her in her hut. She is terrified.
She is asked to take off her clothes and come forward for making him come down from the field and not find her sick. Lilith pretends to be Cerci in her mind and does the unthinkable.
Better to get rip to pieces by the bush dog or wild boar in the
hills than feel that she walk up to a man by herself and let him ravage her.
By going to him, she rapin’ herself.
-page 21-
She attacks Paris, the negro, with the pot of hot tea. A fight ensues. She ends up killing him.
Cerci and Homer return to meet a pool of blood and a dead negro. She blames the child but Homer slaps her for saying the child should have given in and takes Lilith away to a cellar but not without telling Cerci to remember that they saw no one and no one died.
The End of Chapter 1
Now my curiosity is heightened. I wonder what the fate of little Lilith will be and I’ll like to hear your thoughts too. What do you think of Lilith? If you were to describe her in one word what will it be?
Feel free to air your thoughts as you anticipate chapters 2 and 3.