Could not put it down | Jamaica Girl

AN INCREDIBLE LOVE STORY! | Jamaica Girl | Jon Michael Miller

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	• Jamaica Girl Jon Michael Miller PublishAmerica, 2004 - 438 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Compared to "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"

Stella and Winston have everything in common but their ages-they are black, beautiful, rich and cool. But Glenn and Rosalind have nothing in common. The issue in "Stella" is simple; in "Jamaica Girl" there are issues upon issues, and none are simple. In "Stella" McMillan presents the Jamaican settings as idyllic, lush, and verdant, the result of wealth and commercialism - the manicured environment as aphrodisiac. No one in "Stella" has poverty to contend with. It is the fantasy of a successful woman seeking stimulation in paradise.

Like Stella, Glenn reclaims his groove in Jamaica. But Miller reveals Jamaican life far outside the sterilized confines of the all-inclusive resort. In "Jamaica Girl" we see the reality of the land and of the people, a place where people must eke out their existences in a hostile world. He reveals the joy as well as the agony of that environment. Of the two books, Miller's is not only the braver but the truer. I greatly prefer "Jamaica Girl."

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Could not put it down

This was a wonderful story and beautifuly written. I fell in love with the characters and did not want the story to end.

AN INCREDIBLE LOVE STORY!

This book is incredible. I love it! It is an incredible love story, certainly with a different twist and many anxious turns, and even though Glenn starts something not too many people would admire, in the end, I can't help but want the relationship to work. The characterization is phenomenal. Each character is so different, and exciting. This would make a great film.
What I like about the writing is how all the subplots not only get resolved and some of them are pretty difficult, but all of them are somehow linked to the progression and end of the story. I really, absolutely love this story.
This is such an unusual story and it touches so many different opinions and feelings, but I can't help but want Glenn & Rosie to make it. We are never responsible for whom we fall in love with, and in the beginning Glenn does try to do the right thing according to the rules where HE lives. But, there are other worlds and the reader has to think outside the box to fall in love with the relationship, and Mr. Miller has done that very well.

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HECK OF A BOOK

"Jamaica Girl" is a heck of a book. The brief information on Jon Michael Miller on the back cover concludes that the Saint Petersburg, Florida, resident "travels to Jamaica whenever he can." The depth of detail and intimacy with the subject in his novel hint that he has racked up more frequent flyer miles than an Air Jamaica in-flight attendant. And that when Mr. Miller comes to Jamaica he stays.

Glenn Webber and Rosalind Mitchell move from an initial meeting as she hitchhikes between Negril and Lucea to living together in a cottage in western Jamaica blissfully. Their union is accompanied by her growth from a shy, illiterate though certainly not unassertive girl just into her teens into a confident festival queen who takes the national title when she suggests "less hands out and more eyes bright" for tourism.
And Glenn, a middle-aged American, moves from being lacklustre about life and overweight to, on the final page, walking to the edge of a cliff and doing "a perfect swan dive into the blue-green sea", a happy man.

And it also includes scheming, intrigue, murder, whitemail, visits to the provider of spells, near prostitution, licky licky police, Jamaican 'runnings' and, of course, sex.

The writer's skill is evident throughout "Jamaica Girl", heady stuff indeed. Especially impressive is his attention to detail in situations that are way outside the ken of even community tourism, with details of his trip to the Black Cherry go-go club, to the home which Rosalind visits to get a potion and to the waterfall and stream in the hills above Lucea where the young country miss grown into near international model lives.

The perspectives of a foreigner on Jamaica are striking. Before Glenn and Rosalind have sex, his Jamaican friend Duane asked if he has yet "kill it". Glenn is shocked and it leads to a discussion between the two about how women are treated. Duane explains that with his woman Nicole, "she do for me, me do for her". Glenn replies: "...Maybe it's a Jamaican thing. But that's not the way I am. I'll feel responsible for her. I can't just think about my own lust, you know? I can't just play with her then throw her away like a used toy." To which Duane advises: "Me tell you man, have some fun. Do it to her, then go home... Give her something, some nice clothes, some money. Then she's better off than most country girls. But don't worry for her. Jamaica girl strong, man. Believe me, Jamaica girl can carry on for them own self".

Miller's patois dialogue could do with some brushing up, but hey, what the heck.

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Memorable

I get the feeling the author really enjoyed writing the sex scenes since they are the most detailed parts of the book! The story is great overall with lots of interesting and memorable characters. Could have used an editor to shorten it down tho -- it dragged in the middle. The cheap shot at Russell Banks was a little pretentious, but no harm done. Recommended!

Rosalind Juliet Mitchell could become one of the great heroines of modern fiction. She is a Jamaican Lolita and a Caribbean cross between Huck Finn and Liza Doolittle. Dirt poor, hungry, bright-eyed and determined, she clings to her one distant hope ? Glenn Webber, an aging, uncertain American tourist. He is Humbert with a conscience, forced comically to confront one moral dilemma after another in an effort to comprehend a culture very different from his own. In this hilarious, erotic, heart-rending romp, we move from a bloody jungle killing to a Kingston beauty pageant, meeting on the way a supporting cast that includes a voodoo witch, a hip-hop dancer, an ebullient taxi driver, a sly Rasta-man, a ruthless voyeur, a stoned plant lady, a corrupt detective, a quirky pageant coach, some wild Jamaican strippers and an assortment of mountain peasants. Have you been to Jamaica, mon? Climbed the falls? Now immerse yourself in this tropical odyssey of struggle and triumph, and meet one of the most memorable heroines in modern imaginative literature.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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