The Long Song - Andrea Levy

In a fascinating 'writing of' section, the author explains that her intention in writing this book was to explore slavery as "a massive social system - a society in the true sense - that endured for three hundred years". In emphasising the "guile and humour" needed to survive, she creates realistic - strong yet flawed - characters, and succeeds in her aim of portraying slaves as more than "simply a mass of wretched voiceless victims"". This focus on complexities and contradictions is also applied to the white reformers, particularly the newly-arrived Englishman who is unapologetically delighted with his cleverness when he tells the slave July of his plan to marry the white mistress so that they can be together, and whose ideals give way to anger and cruelty when he fails in his attempts to persuade the freed slaves to work the same long hours as before. Most poignant for me was the way in which slave children were treated as property, with the casual removal of the child July from her mother to be a house servant echoed later in the way July's own child was taken away to England, and particularly the surprise and disbelief with which July's attachment to the master's child was met: "But what, Miss July, did you wan' keep that little pickney for your own?" The description of dances arranged so that coloured women could meet white men in the hope of "raising the colour" of their children was horribly plausible, both in the fine graduations of status from 'mulatto' to 'mustiphino', and in the demeaning entrance examination where lips, nose, hair and skin were assessed for negro characteristics. Finally, in keeping with this novel's refusal to tell a simple story, the desperate harshness of post-emancipation survival is also described. Despite the sometimes dark subject matter, this is an engaging and enjoyable book, with an often playful tone.