Cover Stories – John Crow's Devil by Marlon James

Marlon James – John Crow’s Devil

Hello once again, listeners! I am Matthew Hinton with another long overdue installment of cover stories…and I don’t know how you feel about it, but I’m glad to bring this segment out of the trunk, blow off the five or six inches of dust and see if this thing still works. Well, nothing to it but to do it, I suppose.
Anyway, it is, of course, Easter Sunday, and do I have a great gift read for you. John Crow’s Devil by Marlon James is this weeks selection; and what a selection. It follows the religious struggle that takes place in the fictional Jamaican town of Gibbeah during the year 1957. It begins with “The End,” the opening chapter that draws you in with mysterious conclusions and is cloaked in the darkness. A character called the Apostle York has taken over the town’s only church, by force, from the broken and usually drunken Pastor Bligh, known to the townspeople as The Rum Preacher. Here is a selection that picks up after the Rum Preacher has been thrown out by York:

“Clutter blackened the room. Light Blue walls surrendered to the shadows of books, pictures, and maps. Lucinda opened the glass window and the dust woke up, swirling around her like demons. She cursed the Rum Preacher, whose smell the room carried, along with liquor and failure. Lucinda threw out every book not marked Bible. Two hours later the clean and spacey room gave her pause. The large mahogany desk reclaimed its splendor, commanding the center of the room. The chair stood waiting behind it. Bibles were returned to clean bookshelves that bracketed the desk on the right and left walls. Lucinda had washed and polished the floor until she could see her bare knuckles in the reflection. Closer than a brother to swing low sweet chariot. She brought in the Apostle’s books, even though not told to do so, and caressed the ones she recognized: an American Bible and a Bible concordance. The rest, books of Maccabees and Wisdom, Notorious Arts and Hermetics, and some with no name, she puzzled over briefly, but stacked them confidently when she came across the name Solomon.”

This is just a sample of the ability Marlon James brings to the literary table. He creates a simply precise world to set down and study. Something with substance that is refreshing with new writers. His imagery is not the limitation of his skills, however. The story that James presents is as clear as the reflection in Lucinda’s floor polishing. There is a monumental struggle between the forces of Good and Evil, represented by the Rum Preacher and Apostle York, respectively.
James even takes this battle a step further by drawing a parallel in the storyline to two strong female figures. Lucinda, who continues to do all her work for Apostle York, worshipping his figure and movements, respecting and wanting him, and punishing herself with whipping for her desires, still gives into her old ways of witchcraft in the night. She flies here and there, mixes potions to prevent childbirth, and is driven by overwhelming sexuality. The other is the Widow Greenfield, who takes the Rum Preacher home, cooks for him, and becomes somewhat of an unspoken rock and shelter for him during a detox of alcohol and demons. James describes their relationship as having “developed a sort of un-speak that seemed better than words.” Between the sexuality and silences, the witchcraft and the worship, and the sins and forgiveness, the women of John Crow’s Devil personify frailty and strength as characterized by Marlon James and must not be overlooked. If you read this book for the idea of the fight between good and evil, do not limit it to the clergymen. Behind every great man, there is a great woman – regardless of their orientation on the moral compass.
I would like to read another selection from the text. Here we see the Apostle York’s charisma overtaking the town, as is shown in several powerful scenes, but this comes after certain “signs” have waved over the town:

“The Apostle cracked his knuckles on the podium and addressed the congregation directly. He declared that there were demons in the church and threw himself into a fit of tongues. He declared that there was a spirit of witchcraft in the village that had to be broken for the children’s sake. He commanded the spirits to be gone in the name of the Father. Cows were God’s creatures, as bright and beautiful as everything else He made. The Apostle reclaimed the cow in the name of the Father. The congregation whooped and hollered. Then he called to the altar all those with a burden on their hearts.”

Of course, there are just times that we can’t actually see the showdown that Good and Evil must have, but that is something that I truly applaud James for allowing to the reader. He leaves a great gap that allows you to imagine what might have taken place: What forces were called up and in what names, a spiritual theater of the mind that outdoes any film and makes one want to revisit a few biblical passages here and there. Here is how one of the confrontations ends, as the Rum Preacher’s turnaround becomes evident:

“The Pastor’s voice had vanished amidst the scream of vultures. When the Apostle turned around his jaw fell so far that he grabbed his chin to prevent the spit from escaping. The Pastor was on his knees, in the middle of Hanover Road, with his eyes closed but his arms wide open. Before him, behind him, around him, all the way up to the church steps and down Hanover Road, were dead vultures. John Crows with necks broken, heads crushed, and wings ripped away. The Pastor was praying in a circle of untouched road as the sky drizzled black feathers and blood.”

If I were to preach anything to you on this Easter Sunday, loyal listeners, it would be this. Try to find John Crow’s Devil by Marlon James somewhere. Even though it went through a second printing, it sold out at Barnes and Noble and has a zero ordering availability, you should have no problem searching online for it. Google it, borrow it, steal it from a friend, just make sure you get your hands on it and read. It is a powerful first novel from a brilliant writer who is now in the MA Creative writing program here at Wilkes University and it’s one of the best I’ve come across in its time.

By the way, John Crows are vultures.

Once again, in case you missed it, and if you’re just tuning in, the long lost book review this week was of John Crow’s Devil, the debut novel of Marlon James, and it’s on bookshelves somewhere – including mine. This has been another edition of cover stories, I am Matthew Hinton, reminding you to always judge a book by its cover.