A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

I'm not gonna lie -- I am far from qualified to give this book a proper review.  So I'm not even gonna try.  Except to say that everyone should read this book, and coming from me, who generally only reads YA and romance, that's saying a lot.  First of all, I feel very accomplished having finished this novel.  It took me about three months, and I barely read anything else in between to be sure that I actually finished it.  It was worth it.  I am usually a person who thrives on plot, but this one was a study in how to write a novel in many different voices.  There was certainly a plot, that got more interesting as the novel progressed, but the main reason to read this book is because James has a gift for getting into the heads of a whole chorus of characters and making them so distinct that he was able to stop titling the chapters after the characters who were speaking in the last section, and I was able to figure out who each voice was (this is saying a lot because I am not very smart, especially when it comes to character identification).  There was a LOT in this novel that went over my head for various reasons, but it was still compelling throughout and not only do I feel proud of myself for finishing such a complex and difficult novel, but I really enjoyed it.  I wonder how long it's going to take me to stop thinking in Jamaican curse words now.