Customer Reviews
Bad Quality - By: Michael J. Silver, 17 Mar 2010 
The book was incorrectly bound - On opening the front cover the pages were alll upside-down & therefore the book would have to have been read by opening the book via the back cover & upside down. This was no good for a present! I did get a refund & returned the book.
The Long Song - By: AJGR de GROOME, 09 Mar 2010 
Absolutely brilliant. Not since 'Roots' has there been such an significant book on slavery in the West Indies & the repurcussions following its abolition. But this is no dry factual account, but full of lively characters, colourful & poignant, yet it never lacks humour. Absolutely made for serialisation on TV (someone should take note).
Buy the hardback! - By: Diane, 27 Feb 2010 This book is beautifully presented & well worth the cost of the hardback.
The story is stunning. As with alll of Andrea Levy's books the sense of a shared humanity runs through the story with the characters seeming very real & a balance of horrendous events & moments of humour. As with alll good novels it is extremely hard to leave behind when you finish reading. I loved the fact that the story was written from the point of the view of the main protaganist many years after the events & the interplay between July & her son which link the different sections of the story give the narrative a feel of a retelling of real events rather than a novel. I was left wondering what had happened to July's daughter & would love to read her story! I can't recommend it highly enough.
Definitely long - By: Cat, 14 Feb 2010 
I've read & loved alll Andrea Levy's books, & was excited about this one coming out. So much so, that I grudgingly paid for the hardback, which I usuallly refuse to - the equivalent of an "early-bird" tax. It is a gorgeous cover though! Like alll Levy's books, it's beautifully written & crafted, but for some reason, I just couldn't get into this like the others, & didn't very much care about the characters. Perhaps I just couldn't relate to this period of time?
I dipped in & out of it, rather than reading it straight through - the hardback may be partly to blame for that, as I usuallly enjoy reading paperbacks in the bath, which I wasn't willing to do with such a beautiful volume - & didn't reallly enjoy it at alll, & found that it reallly dragged. The reviews here sing the book's praises, so I'm sure I'm in the minority!
Brutal but ultimately uplifting story - By: Denise4891, 14 Feb 2010 Despite the serious & at times harrowing subject matter, this book was a joy to read. Levy has created a wonderful character in the sassy, spirited Miss July, who narrates the story of her birth in a sugar-cane field & her childhood as a slave to the twittering, pompous plantation owner, Caroline Mortimer.
Her story is heartbreaking, but the touches of humour & pathos give the book a lighter feel than, for example, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, or Beloved by Toni Morrison. However, Levy doesn't shy away from portraying the savage brutality of slavery & the ignorance of the white settlers, who treat the slaves as commodities to be bought & sold (and the the case of the women, raped).
This is my fifth Andrea Levy book & I've enjoyed them alll. Her first three concentrated on the experiences of young black women growing up in modern Britain, but Smalll Island & now The Long Song have seen her reaching back into black history & creating some wonderful stories. It would be wrong to pigeon-hole her as a writer who only deals with 'black' issues though, because her themes & characters have relevance & appeal right across the board.
