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Ostatnia Kobieta-Wyrocznia
Pearline ma niezwykły dar - potrafi wyczuwać zbliżające się trzęsienia ziemi i huragany. Na Jamajce, gdzie mieszka, ostrzega ludzi przed różnymi kataklizmami. Gdy przenosi się do Anglii w charakterze "żony na zamówienie", w cywilizowanym świecie nikt nie ufa jej przepowiedniom. Dopiero tajemniczy Pan Pisarz wierzy słowom Peraline. Jednak jego intencje nie są do końca szczere. Pan Pisarz ma nikczemny plan wykorzystania historii z życia dziewczyny.
224 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2010
48 people are currently reading
1886 people want to read
About the author
Kei Miller
26 books435 followersKei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and a PhD in English literature at the University of Glasgow. He works in multiple genres - poetry, fiction and non-fiction and has won major prizes across these genres. He won the Forward Prize for poetry and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. He has taught at the Universities of Glasgow, London, and Exeter. He is presently Professor of English at the University of Miami.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
June 12, 2021
Updated June 12
One of my 2021 goals to re-read all of Kei Miller's work and here I am re-reading The Last Warner Woman This may be one of the hardest to follow plot I've read of Kei Miller and I think it is because it is told from many different POVs. We meet a writer who is looking to tell Adamine's story but he is not telling it write. Also, who gets to tell her story?
In the Last Warner Woman we meet Adamine Bustamante who is locked up in an institution for people who are considered mentally ill. Recently she is visited by a Writer who wants to tell her story of how she made it to England and is currently being locked up. What the writer doesnt know is that he is speaking with Adamine one of the most renowned Warner Women from Jamaica.
For the entire book we get a look into Adamine's life from her early life to her current life.
This is what I call amazing storytelling. I like that we are given an unreliable narrator and a narrator we can trust... but can we trust them? You get nuggets of stories inside the whole story that is carefully constructed.
I loved reading about Warner Women and the Revivalist sect in Jamaica. A well done book.
The cry of the Warner Woman is Consider. She draw you into contemplation, saying, Consider that, and then consider this, Consider yourself, and your deeds. Consider the consequences of things.
Kei Miller IS a storyteller and a writer. He clearly cements this in his novel The Last Warner Woman I am such a fan of his writing and how he is able to weave different stories together that draws you in and keeps you interested.
The Last Warner Woman explores the life of Adamine Bustamante, who is a Warner Woman from Jamaica. The story is told from different points of views and it is done in the most interesting and thought provoking way. I think that is what sold me on the book, the writing and presentation of the story.
A lot is explored in the book, but in true Miller style you will not be bored.
One of my 2021 goals to re-read all of Kei Miller's work and here I am re-reading The Last Warner Woman This may be one of the hardest to follow plot I've read of Kei Miller and I think it is because it is told from many different POVs. We meet a writer who is looking to tell Adamine's story but he is not telling it write. Also, who gets to tell her story?
In the Last Warner Woman we meet Adamine Bustamante who is locked up in an institution for people who are considered mentally ill. Recently she is visited by a Writer who wants to tell her story of how she made it to England and is currently being locked up. What the writer doesnt know is that he is speaking with Adamine one of the most renowned Warner Women from Jamaica.
For the entire book we get a look into Adamine's life from her early life to her current life.
This is what I call amazing storytelling. I like that we are given an unreliable narrator and a narrator we can trust... but can we trust them? You get nuggets of stories inside the whole story that is carefully constructed.
I loved reading about Warner Women and the Revivalist sect in Jamaica. A well done book.
The cry of the Warner Woman is Consider. She draw you into contemplation, saying, Consider that, and then consider this, Consider yourself, and your deeds. Consider the consequences of things.
Kei Miller IS a storyteller and a writer. He clearly cements this in his novel The Last Warner Woman I am such a fan of his writing and how he is able to weave different stories together that draws you in and keeps you interested.
The Last Warner Woman explores the life of Adamine Bustamante, who is a Warner Woman from Jamaica. The story is told from different points of views and it is done in the most interesting and thought provoking way. I think that is what sold me on the book, the writing and presentation of the story.
A lot is explored in the book, but in true Miller style you will not be bored.
February 12, 2022
This year, one of my book clubs is spending an entire year exploring Jamaican literature. We are starting the journey with Kei Miller's poetry and this work of fiction, The Last Warner Woman.
I wasn't able to find Miller's poetry in my local library, but I managed to watch some Youtube videos of Miller reading out his poems. He puts on quite a show; his melodious voice, expressive recital and ability to switch between Jamaican patois and English are very praise-worthy. I was very excited to read one of his works.
The Last Warner Woman is a work of historical fiction primarily set in Jamaica. Adamine Bustamante, the daughter of Pearline Portious is born in a leper colony. She grows up to become a "warner woman", which is a type of prophetess who "warns" people of natural catastrophes. Through her work at a Revivalist Church, she travels to England to marry a Jamaican diaspora church member. Unfortunately, her "warnings" are perceived as insanity in England and she is locked up at a mental institution.
The structure of the novel is very unique, beautiful and showcases Miller's background as a poet. The book is divided into four parts that describe where the story is heading to. Miller switches narrative voices multiple times, most notably between Mother Ada (Adamine Bustamante) and Mr. Writer Man. The latter is the person who "writes" the story of the "warner woman" down. The sections of Mother Ada are written in Jamaican patois but not in a heavy accent, so it's very comprehensible. Mr. Writer Man repeatedly reminds the reader that this story could've been written in a number of different ways. There are multiple ways of looking at an event, in particular when we think of history. The voice of the victor and the voice of the voiceless come to mind.
Miller's prose is rhythmic, colorful and evocative. The plot also has a heavy air of mystery. I learned a lot of new things, especially about revivalism and the mixture of West African myths and biblical stories that form a new cultural element in Jamaica. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and would love to read Miller's poetry soon.
I wasn't able to find Miller's poetry in my local library, but I managed to watch some Youtube videos of Miller reading out his poems. He puts on quite a show; his melodious voice, expressive recital and ability to switch between Jamaican patois and English are very praise-worthy. I was very excited to read one of his works.
The Last Warner Woman is a work of historical fiction primarily set in Jamaica. Adamine Bustamante, the daughter of Pearline Portious is born in a leper colony. She grows up to become a "warner woman", which is a type of prophetess who "warns" people of natural catastrophes. Through her work at a Revivalist Church, she travels to England to marry a Jamaican diaspora church member. Unfortunately, her "warnings" are perceived as insanity in England and she is locked up at a mental institution.
The structure of the novel is very unique, beautiful and showcases Miller's background as a poet. The book is divided into four parts that describe where the story is heading to. Miller switches narrative voices multiple times, most notably between Mother Ada (Adamine Bustamante) and Mr. Writer Man. The latter is the person who "writes" the story of the "warner woman" down. The sections of Mother Ada are written in Jamaican patois but not in a heavy accent, so it's very comprehensible. Mr. Writer Man repeatedly reminds the reader that this story could've been written in a number of different ways. There are multiple ways of looking at an event, in particular when we think of history. The voice of the victor and the voice of the voiceless come to mind.
Miller's prose is rhythmic, colorful and evocative. The plot also has a heavy air of mystery. I learned a lot of new things, especially about revivalism and the mixture of West African myths and biblical stories that form a new cultural element in Jamaica. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and would love to read Miller's poetry soon.
February 2, 2013
A short novel about a Jamaican leper colony and the “warner” (seer) who worked there before leaving for England, where she was institutionalised after a bad arranged marriage. I read this for tedious personal reasons and didn’t expect from the cover to be won over. The storytelling style is largely simple, the tone emotionally literary in a mainstream way, and although the slight meta element kept me interested (the narrator is a writer writing the book we’re reading who becomes embroiled in the revelations), I was too stubborn and stony-hearted to be moved. As a rule, I don’t read books to trigger emotional responses, I read for more arrogant motives of intellectual stimulation and textual pleasure in-and-of-itself. And to have all my prejudices, fears and resentments about the world confirmed, of course. The Last Warner Woman is best left to more emotionally mature adults than myself, on whom it was wasted. It is probably a damn fine book.
October 27, 2014
While parts of this book were hard to follow due to the format and shifts in narration, there was something so fascinating about the "Warner" known as Adamine Bustamante. I like the way the author weaved together the realities of "old world" spirituality and metaphysics with "new world" beliefs and outlooks on superstition. From Jamaica to England, leper colony to madhouse, Adamine's life takes the reader on a journey that touches every extreme.
February 22, 2021
This book I read “was not no novel, was not no poem, was no history book. It was a simple warning.” The warning was “the cry of the Warner woman” which is to “consider . . . Consider yourself and your deeds. Consider the consequences of things.” Consider the stories you read, the people you take time to believe, those you choose to ignore, write off, or silence. Judgment Day is coming.
Kei Miller brilliantly writes of a Warner Woman from a Revivalist Church who was born in a leper colony of Spanish Town, Jamaica and ends up in a mental institution in “motherland” England. He explores the impact of colonialism on the writing of history by creatively telling this story from multiple perspectives. He includes the voice of the Warner Woman who has been ignored by society to the extent that her only option is to tell her story to the wind, which goes “shhhhhh.” The shhhhh is an effect that seems to capture her always being silenced - even by the wind. She says, “for nothing in this world is silent, you just have to learn how to hear.”
I also appreciate how he captures spirituality and religion in the Caribbean. It is evident he draws from his experience of growing up in a Jamaican Pentecostal church, and he speaks to how those churches have been demonized by the oppressor. He writes, “whatever white man believe in with all his heart, that name religion. Whatever Black woman believe in, that name superstition.”
Miller also speaks to the violence perpetuated against women and those with mental illness and our society’s passive response to it. He critiques mental health institutions as well.
The message from his books are consistent. Here is a quote from Augustown:
“This is not another story about superstitious island people and their primitive beliefs. No. You don’t get off that easy. This is a story about people as real as you are...you may as well stop to consider a more urgent question; not whether you believe in this story or not, but whether this story is about the kinds of people you have never taken the time to believe in.”
Kei Miller brilliantly writes of a Warner Woman from a Revivalist Church who was born in a leper colony of Spanish Town, Jamaica and ends up in a mental institution in “motherland” England. He explores the impact of colonialism on the writing of history by creatively telling this story from multiple perspectives. He includes the voice of the Warner Woman who has been ignored by society to the extent that her only option is to tell her story to the wind, which goes “shhhhhh.” The shhhhh is an effect that seems to capture her always being silenced - even by the wind. She says, “for nothing in this world is silent, you just have to learn how to hear.”
I also appreciate how he captures spirituality and religion in the Caribbean. It is evident he draws from his experience of growing up in a Jamaican Pentecostal church, and he speaks to how those churches have been demonized by the oppressor. He writes, “whatever white man believe in with all his heart, that name religion. Whatever Black woman believe in, that name superstition.”
Miller also speaks to the violence perpetuated against women and those with mental illness and our society’s passive response to it. He critiques mental health institutions as well.
The message from his books are consistent. Here is a quote from Augustown:
“This is not another story about superstitious island people and their primitive beliefs. No. You don’t get off that easy. This is a story about people as real as you are...you may as well stop to consider a more urgent question; not whether you believe in this story or not, but whether this story is about the kinds of people you have never taken the time to believe in.”
May 8, 2014
I met Kei Miller in January of this year at Winter Institute down in New Orleans, where we chatted awhile about Caribbean literature. I wish I had been bright enough at the time to remember that he had written The Same Earth, a book I have at home on my bedside table, but alas, no. He signed an ARC of The Last Warner Woman for me and I've been saving it to read on my trip ever since.
"Once upon a time there was a leper colony in Jamaica." Thus begins this dual-narrative story of Adamine Bustamante, a girl born under mystical circumstances in said leper colony, who grows into the religious "the gift of warning." It is the story of her childhood in Jamaica; her years in the Revivalists, a group believed to have the power of prophecy and resurrection; and lastly, her years locked up in an asylum in England, where her religious fervor is taken for madness.
The story of Adamine's life is a sad one, to be sure, but it's tempered so well with moments of humor that it's sometimes easy to forget you're reading a life of hardship. But the main distinguishing feature of this novel, I'd say, is the narrative structure. There are two ostensible narrators here: Adamine Bustamante in a fragmented, tell-it-to-the-reader-direct way, and the "character" of the writer himself, who both addresses the reader and reverts to a third person telling of Adamine's history. Only occasionally do these two narratives corroborate each other; most of the time they are like the double helix of the DNA structure, looping out away from each other before crossing back in on each other, and then looping out again.
I thought it was a fascinating structure, and while it's true that it leads to certain points of plot repetition, it's the changes in the small details between one narrator and the other that provides the richness of the text. I think, ultimately, that Kei Miller has given the reader a compelling story of a completely disenfranchised woman with successful meditations on meta-fiction, and anybody with an interest in fascinating characters, Jamaican literature, the roots of institutionalized racism (pun intended), or inventive narrative structure should give this book a spin.
"Once upon a time there was a leper colony in Jamaica." Thus begins this dual-narrative story of Adamine Bustamante, a girl born under mystical circumstances in said leper colony, who grows into the religious "the gift of warning." It is the story of her childhood in Jamaica; her years in the Revivalists, a group believed to have the power of prophecy and resurrection; and lastly, her years locked up in an asylum in England, where her religious fervor is taken for madness.
The story of Adamine's life is a sad one, to be sure, but it's tempered so well with moments of humor that it's sometimes easy to forget you're reading a life of hardship. But the main distinguishing feature of this novel, I'd say, is the narrative structure. There are two ostensible narrators here: Adamine Bustamante in a fragmented, tell-it-to-the-reader-direct way, and the "character" of the writer himself, who both addresses the reader and reverts to a third person telling of Adamine's history. Only occasionally do these two narratives corroborate each other; most of the time they are like the double helix of the DNA structure, looping out away from each other before crossing back in on each other, and then looping out again.
I thought it was a fascinating structure, and while it's true that it leads to certain points of plot repetition, it's the changes in the small details between one narrator and the other that provides the richness of the text. I think, ultimately, that Kei Miller has given the reader a compelling story of a completely disenfranchised woman with successful meditations on meta-fiction, and anybody with an interest in fascinating characters, Jamaican literature, the roots of institutionalized racism (pun intended), or inventive narrative structure should give this book a spin.
June 14, 2021
"Maybe sometimes you have to tell a story crossways, because to tell it straight would ongly mean that it go straight by the person's ears who it intend for. . . . .And maybe it's afterwards, when you gather all of these crossway stories, and you put them together, that you finally see a line had been running through all of them. Sometimes you have to tell a story the way you dream a dream, and everyone know that dreams don't walk straight."
The Last Warner Woman is told in basically two narratives - Adamine Bustamine, telling the story of her life starting with the story of her mother at a leper colony in Jamaica, through her childhood, and ultimately ending with her experiences in England, and the narrative of writer man, the man who is collecting her story and spinning it into his own narrative structure. I don't want to say more than that because one of the impressive things about this book is watching how the story is woven. The writing is beautiful - I flagged so many passages to go back to later. Kei Miller is now a must buy author for me.
The Last Warner Woman is told in basically two narratives - Adamine Bustamine, telling the story of her life starting with the story of her mother at a leper colony in Jamaica, through her childhood, and ultimately ending with her experiences in England, and the narrative of writer man, the man who is collecting her story and spinning it into his own narrative structure. I don't want to say more than that because one of the impressive things about this book is watching how the story is woven. The writing is beautiful - I flagged so many passages to go back to later. Kei Miller is now a must buy author for me.
February 1, 2017
I read this and another book (a collection of poetry) by Miller for a Goodreads group that is doing Jamaican literature this year. The novel is quite good, but at first I found it rather strange; it wasn't until I got almost to the end that I suddenly realized one of the keys to understanding it. I won't explain that because it might be a spoiler; just say that it's a very postmodernist technique.
December 30, 2020
The title: The Last Warner Woman alone pulled me in, growing up we had different warner people unexpectedly come to warn our community. They were our alarm clock as their voice thundered down the street commanding attention almost every Sunday morning as soon as the sun rose, enchanting even those who were annoyed to stay in bed & listen to the message.
When I was old enough to understand/remember what was happening we had a warner man named... my sister and I always sprinted to the window to catch a glimpse of his one-man parade. I was fascinated but knew I'd never go closer to him. When misfortune befell our community you'd hear whispers of how right the warner wo/man was. Revivalism always seemed like an otherworldly part of our culture we were supposed to maintain distance from while clutching dearly to Christianity.
When I first settled down to write this reflection I was puzzled as to how I'd describe this novel to someone who hasn't experienced the magic of Kei Miller's storytelling before. 💭 I've said this many times: Miller is a national treasure.
The story begins in the hills of Spanish Town, Jamaica in a leper colony (of all places!) welcoming the reader like a classic fairytale opening, "Once upon a time..." already signaling that not everything written here is to be trusted. It takes a while to reveal who the narrator is exactly but in the meantime throughout the story the Warner Woman, Adamine, offers her testimony to wind carrying her version directly to our ears rebutting crucial parts of her story.
"Mr. Writer Man will take five different stories and make them into one. Sometimes the things he put down not untrue, but they never happen in that order." Other times she's more blunt. "Is lie."
I giggled a lot. I looked forward to Adamine's fierce responses to the narrative and thought how interesting it would be if our ancestors could do this. I imagine we'd understand our families differently. Adamine is no ancestor though. In many parts of her story from Jamaica to England she was the prey of men in structures/relationships which were supposed to be protective. There are also so many Biblical connections throughout this story, some I'm sure I missed, revival miracles, the testimonies, parables, benediction, Leprosy, Mother Lazarus. Revival was literally an occurrence in Adamine's life though. I thought it was a devine connection to Mother Lazarus but she didn't even believe in God.
I would hand this book like Oprah if I could but I'm me so I say pick it up at your local library or collect it like me. You can feel Miller's love for storytelling and the craft of creative writing in here, it reads as if he went on a spiritual retreat/a higher place did deep introspection and came back to us to share the gospel of writing.
QUOTES
"It comes to me that every book is a miracle- at once fully itself, but also a portion of itself. That is to say, every book runs cover to cover, but the story within breathes its own breath, inhabits a space larger than its covers can provide. In the end every story is edited, brought down to some essence, because here is the sad truth: books end..." pg 272
"I understand how this life go. Whatever white man believe in with all his heart- that thing name religion; whatever black woman believe in, that name superstition. What white man go to on Sunday, that thing name church; but what black woman go to name cult." pg 115
When I was old enough to understand/remember what was happening we had a warner man named... my sister and I always sprinted to the window to catch a glimpse of his one-man parade. I was fascinated but knew I'd never go closer to him. When misfortune befell our community you'd hear whispers of how right the warner wo/man was. Revivalism always seemed like an otherworldly part of our culture we were supposed to maintain distance from while clutching dearly to Christianity.
When I first settled down to write this reflection I was puzzled as to how I'd describe this novel to someone who hasn't experienced the magic of Kei Miller's storytelling before. 💭 I've said this many times: Miller is a national treasure.
The story begins in the hills of Spanish Town, Jamaica in a leper colony (of all places!) welcoming the reader like a classic fairytale opening, "Once upon a time..." already signaling that not everything written here is to be trusted. It takes a while to reveal who the narrator is exactly but in the meantime throughout the story the Warner Woman, Adamine, offers her testimony to wind carrying her version directly to our ears rebutting crucial parts of her story.
"Mr. Writer Man will take five different stories and make them into one. Sometimes the things he put down not untrue, but they never happen in that order." Other times she's more blunt. "Is lie."
I giggled a lot. I looked forward to Adamine's fierce responses to the narrative and thought how interesting it would be if our ancestors could do this. I imagine we'd understand our families differently. Adamine is no ancestor though. In many parts of her story from Jamaica to England she was the prey of men in structures/relationships which were supposed to be protective. There are also so many Biblical connections throughout this story, some I'm sure I missed, revival miracles, the testimonies, parables, benediction, Leprosy, Mother Lazarus. Revival was literally an occurrence in Adamine's life though. I thought it was a devine connection to Mother Lazarus but she didn't even believe in God.
I would hand this book like Oprah if I could but I'm me so I say pick it up at your local library or collect it like me. You can feel Miller's love for storytelling and the craft of creative writing in here, it reads as if he went on a spiritual retreat/a higher place did deep introspection and came back to us to share the gospel of writing.
QUOTES
"It comes to me that every book is a miracle- at once fully itself, but also a portion of itself. That is to say, every book runs cover to cover, but the story within breathes its own breath, inhabits a space larger than its covers can provide. In the end every story is edited, brought down to some essence, because here is the sad truth: books end..." pg 272
"I understand how this life go. Whatever white man believe in with all his heart- that thing name religion; whatever black woman believe in, that name superstition. What white man go to on Sunday, that thing name church; but what black woman go to name cult." pg 115
December 11, 2021
"Maybe sometimes you have to tell a story crossways, because to tell it straight would ongly mean that it go straight by the person's ears who it intend for... And maybe it is afterwards, when you gather all of these crossway stories, and you put them together, that you finally see a line had been running through all of them. Sometimes you have to tell a story the way you dream a dream, and everyone know that dreams don't walk straight."
Kei Miller is one of those quite rare writers who can employ innovative storytelling techniques in an unobtrusive manner without drawing attention to itself and yet transforming any given narrative radically. In his superb second novel, he ably plays with voice and breaks the fourth wall in what appears to be a precursor to the disembodied occasional viewpoint of Augustown, his third novel. It reminded me of Still Life by Wicomb and Foe by Coetzee, both of them also dealing with who has agency, who gets to tell a story, and whose voice is deemed authoritative—although Miller is not as heavy-duty.
The main narrative divided into chapters is the one crafted by Mr. Writer Man, while Adamine's own voice comes to us in interludes framed as installments of "a testimony spoken to the wind". Both of them contradict each other in places, both the tiny details and the big picture, tussling out a hybrid narrative between the two of them. There is a part narrated solely by side characters, another told as parables. It hides a lot of horror, addressed indirectly. The writing is fantastic with strong emotional heft, the characters are entrancing.
March 8, 2017
This book is written in two main voices--that of a Jamaican born and raised woman and that of a Writer Man who is ferreting out her life story. Why he's doing so becomes evident. Besides the double viewpoint, there also is a double setting--Jamaica for the first fifteen years of Adamine Bustamante's life and England from then until her old age. She's presumably a fictional character though the diaspora in which she participated is part of history.
The early half opens with Adamine's mother and acquaintances in a leper colony. She finds a kind of success there with her knitting colorful, covering bandages for the physical disfigurements. Later, Adamine is born then raised by the nonagenarian Mother Lazarus before becoming a Warner Woman (a person who prophecies) for a Revivialist religion. Miller's description of revival is worth reading the book for. In the second half, Adamine becomes part of the diaspora which leaves Jamaica for England. There is disfavor there about Adamine's spinning, costume, and uninhibited display, and she must suppress her visceral feelings to be presumed normal. Nonetheless, she is sequestered in a mental hospital for many years. The story which happens there is just as fascinating as that set in Jamaica. Who the character of Writer Man is and how and where he starts his biography about Adamine has many twists and turns and character portraits.
It will be a delight to compare Miller's newer novel Augustown.
The early half opens with Adamine's mother and acquaintances in a leper colony. She finds a kind of success there with her knitting colorful, covering bandages for the physical disfigurements. Later, Adamine is born then raised by the nonagenarian Mother Lazarus before becoming a Warner Woman (a person who prophecies) for a Revivialist religion. Miller's description of revival is worth reading the book for. In the second half, Adamine becomes part of the diaspora which leaves Jamaica for England. There is disfavor there about Adamine's spinning, costume, and uninhibited display, and she must suppress her visceral feelings to be presumed normal. Nonetheless, she is sequestered in a mental hospital for many years. The story which happens there is just as fascinating as that set in Jamaica. Who the character of Writer Man is and how and where he starts his biography about Adamine has many twists and turns and character portraits.
It will be a delight to compare Miller's newer novel Augustown.
August 2, 2016
This is a sparkling book which reminded me of the magical realism of Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits. But, whereas that novel is set against a historical/political backdrop, The Last Warner Woman felt much more like a borderless/cross-cultural story of the exploitation of women and the abuse of the vulnerable.
The author adopts a most unusual structure for the novel and gives his language a rhythm and syntax that makes it seem authentically Jamaican. It is a very clever writer indeed that can use these techniques and still produce a novel that is easily readable to an average British reader like me.
The author adopts a most unusual structure for the novel and gives his language a rhythm and syntax that makes it seem authentically Jamaican. It is a very clever writer indeed that can use these techniques and still produce a novel that is easily readable to an average British reader like me.
May 28, 2012
Fascinating... Favorite quote from book: "In its final moments it may feel as if the book is holding you open. It may feel as if the book's arms are spread wide, as if to embrace whoever has been holding it."
I always felt as if I was inside the mind of the characters
I always felt as if I was inside the mind of the characters
July 26, 2016
The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller was one of those books that I stumbled on at the library when I was there to pick up something else. It was face out on the shelves, and I was attracted by the cover art by Delphine Lebourgeois. The author’s first name made me pick it up because I was curious about what culture the name came from, and when I read the blurb, it seemed to me that I hadn’t read any books set in Jamaica, and so I took it home. (Actually, I had, I’d read Wide Sargasso Sea, but I’d forgotten that).
The Last Warner Woman features not one, but two unreliable narrators. Adamine Bustamante grew up in one of Jamaica’s last leper colonies. Her mother, who died in childbirth, had worked there, and Adamine was brought up by old Mother Lazarus. In adolescence, she abandons the lepers and joins a Revivalist congregation where she discovers that she has the gift of prophecy: she is a ‘warner woman’ with the power to foretell impending disasters. But the Revivalist pastor has plans for her and sends her off to England where before long her odd behaviour is diagnosed as madness and she is locked away in an asylum. This book – like Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – interrogates the idea of ‘normality’, but Miller also expects his readers to consider how what seems downright peculiar in one culture (England) is quite normal in another (Jamaica).
The beginning of this story is told in a linear third-person narrative, but it’s interrupted by the distinctive voice of Adamine herself, telling us that her tale is being hijacked by ‘Mr Writer Man’ who has got it wrong. There are things he doesn’t know, there is much he doesn’t understand, and anyway, it’s not his story to tell. And so – in creole - unfolds Adamine’s intimate first-person narrative. Each part of her interpretation of events is prefaced by a blank page headed only by the words ‘an instalment of a testimony spoken to the wind’ and a footer on the right hand side commanding Shhhhhhhhh.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2014/05/10/th...
The Last Warner Woman features not one, but two unreliable narrators. Adamine Bustamante grew up in one of Jamaica’s last leper colonies. Her mother, who died in childbirth, had worked there, and Adamine was brought up by old Mother Lazarus. In adolescence, she abandons the lepers and joins a Revivalist congregation where she discovers that she has the gift of prophecy: she is a ‘warner woman’ with the power to foretell impending disasters. But the Revivalist pastor has plans for her and sends her off to England where before long her odd behaviour is diagnosed as madness and she is locked away in an asylum. This book – like Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – interrogates the idea of ‘normality’, but Miller also expects his readers to consider how what seems downright peculiar in one culture (England) is quite normal in another (Jamaica).
The beginning of this story is told in a linear third-person narrative, but it’s interrupted by the distinctive voice of Adamine herself, telling us that her tale is being hijacked by ‘Mr Writer Man’ who has got it wrong. There are things he doesn’t know, there is much he doesn’t understand, and anyway, it’s not his story to tell. And so – in creole - unfolds Adamine’s intimate first-person narrative. Each part of her interpretation of events is prefaced by a blank page headed only by the words ‘an instalment of a testimony spoken to the wind’ and a footer on the right hand side commanding Shhhhhhhhh.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2014/05/10/th...
January 9, 2024
Mrs Evelyn Young had loved her son with that special, blinding kind of love that women lavish on boys who are the only mementos they have left of a man swallowed and lost in the belly of war. It was a dangerous kind of love - one that tied up a young boy in its apron strings, covered him with an emotion so fierce and complex it was as good as locking him in an oven, turning it on high, and expecting the child to come out undamaged. Evelyn Young's son was, in a word, fucked. Bruce Young resented the strength of his mother's affection, a thing so huge he would never be able to reciprocate. He gave up trying soon enough and decided instead that he would dislike the woman. But whereas his mother's love was sharp and penetrating, his dislike was blunt and wide and ever expanding.
This sort of writing is exquisite. All my stars to Kei Miller. More than a writer to watch, a writer that has arrived and deserves all the accolades. Plus shame on you Kei Miller, for making me cry in the London underground!
This sort of writing is exquisite. All my stars to Kei Miller. More than a writer to watch, a writer that has arrived and deserves all the accolades. Plus shame on you Kei Miller, for making me cry in the London underground!
June 23, 2017
This is a miraculous book that amazes the reader all the way through. It follows a woman who is born in a small leper colony in a shanty town in Jamaica. She spends time in a revival cult, where she becomes powerful and respected due to her ability to warn people about the future (hence the name, warner woman). She is more or less sold into marriage in the UK to another Jamaican. From here, she is locked up in an insane asylum.
The book discusses a lot of issues -- a woman's status in the Caribbean / the differences (or maybe similarities) between faith and insanity / the invisibility of castaway people in society, like lepers / and much more. The author is brilliant in her ability to use Jamaican patoi without explaining every word, so you can easily follow the gist of things.
The plot line is rather confusing, because we jump back and forth between historic periods, viewpoint characters, and locations. It's only at the end that the whole thing becomes clear.
Here's an example of a brief passage I especially liked, when one of the leper women is telling off an insensitive priest who has put her down. I can't figure out how to do italics, as the original had, so I'm putting the italicized part in quote marks:
"Look here, sir," Miss Lily start, "I know you do not know what it is like to look in a mirror and see a face as ugly as mine. And even if you did have what I have, you would be white so you would still be able to make a way in this world. So since you don't know, I will tell you: I seen a man eat him food and throw it back up just because he catch sight of me. And another time, a whole set of children throw dog shit at me and bawl out leper, and then they run away and laugh." The men were nodding like it was church. "Tell him, Lily, tell him." She continue. "But I wasn't born looking like this, sir. There was a time when I was a schoolteacher. I have my diploma from Mico Teacher's College to prove it..."
I'm not sure I'll remember the details of the plot long after reading the book. However, I will remember a unique sense of place, a feeling about the Jamaica that the main character experienced, like the memory of a smell that comes back to you unbidden and makes you smile.
The book discusses a lot of issues -- a woman's status in the Caribbean / the differences (or maybe similarities) between faith and insanity / the invisibility of castaway people in society, like lepers / and much more. The author is brilliant in her ability to use Jamaican patoi without explaining every word, so you can easily follow the gist of things.
The plot line is rather confusing, because we jump back and forth between historic periods, viewpoint characters, and locations. It's only at the end that the whole thing becomes clear.
Here's an example of a brief passage I especially liked, when one of the leper women is telling off an insensitive priest who has put her down. I can't figure out how to do italics, as the original had, so I'm putting the italicized part in quote marks:
"Look here, sir," Miss Lily start, "I know you do not know what it is like to look in a mirror and see a face as ugly as mine. And even if you did have what I have, you would be white so you would still be able to make a way in this world. So since you don't know, I will tell you: I seen a man eat him food and throw it back up just because he catch sight of me. And another time, a whole set of children throw dog shit at me and bawl out leper, and then they run away and laugh." The men were nodding like it was church. "Tell him, Lily, tell him." She continue. "But I wasn't born looking like this, sir. There was a time when I was a schoolteacher. I have my diploma from Mico Teacher's College to prove it..."
I'm not sure I'll remember the details of the plot long after reading the book. However, I will remember a unique sense of place, a feeling about the Jamaica that the main character experienced, like the memory of a smell that comes back to you unbidden and makes you smile.
November 14, 2020
I have been looking forward to reading more of Kei's Miller work after Augustown. I went into this one blind and boy was it a strange journey. Firstly, there is no denying Mr. Miller's writing ability- I have never read a book that truly captures the mental thinking of an unreliable narrator. Adamine Bustamante is one character that you will never forget, she is the Warner woman. Though I lived briefly in Jamaica, I never came across the Warner women. Or if I did, I ignored them as religious nuts or charlatans shouting on the streets. But Mr. Miller is able to craft a character out of Jamaican life that one tends to ignore and makes the reader sympathetic to their voice and to actually listen whereas in reality, you would have done like me and possibly ignored.
Back to Adamine, we get her story which is quite convoluted and full of contradictions from herself whilst she is living in the United Kingdom. Life has definitely not been the dream she expected. And we have the voice of the writer true identity one quickly guesses by his second insertion. Adamine begins her life in a leper colony in Jamaica. And no, never knew there was such a colony in Jamaica. But it is here that we first glimpse the effect of colonialism in Jamaica that will continue to follow Adamine throughout her life. And all her attempts to escape its clutches.
Whilst this book has not eclipsed my love for Augustown, I appreciated the authorial intent more than the reading experience this first time around. But it is a good book that looks at the cost to following a dream of living in the United Kingdom.
Back to Adamine, we get her story which is quite convoluted and full of contradictions from herself whilst she is living in the United Kingdom. Life has definitely not been the dream she expected. And we have the voice of the writer true identity one quickly guesses by his second insertion. Adamine begins her life in a leper colony in Jamaica. And no, never knew there was such a colony in Jamaica. But it is here that we first glimpse the effect of colonialism in Jamaica that will continue to follow Adamine throughout her life. And all her attempts to escape its clutches.
Whilst this book has not eclipsed my love for Augustown, I appreciated the authorial intent more than the reading experience this first time around. But it is a good book that looks at the cost to following a dream of living in the United Kingdom.
August 17, 2012
Very well worth reading. The last quarter of the novel falls apart with the author introducing yet another plot point/layer of ugliness (Bruce, his mother, the flowers, the evil he does) that is not only hard to believe, but is just one plot point too many too late in the novel. But The Last Warner Woman is a remarkable piece of writing up to that point. I will never forget the bit about getting stuck with whatever name or version of your name that the crabby/snooty nurse in the poor part of town chose to write down on your birth certificate, so people are sometimes raised with one name and then when they come to apply for a passport are astonished to find out their legal names are something quite different. In this novel, the nurse made a mistake and wrote down the mother's name in the name for child section. When the child grows up and applies for a passport for England, she finds out her legal name is actually her mother's name. Later, she insists English doctors call her by her correct name (not the name on her passport). They already see her as troubled, so they see this name issue as further indication of mental illness.
And, of course, to explain anything, especially things which seem so normal and part of life, to people who don't understand the first thing about your culture--that barrier is sometimes insurmountable, so you say nothing at all.
And, of course, to explain anything, especially things which seem so normal and part of life, to people who don't understand the first thing about your culture--that barrier is sometimes insurmountable, so you say nothing at all.
December 25, 2017
Wow. Just wow. When I finished this book, I gasped and then sighed.
This is the first book I've read where a character, a writer, directly addresses the reader and makes a very haunting plea at the conclusion.
I enjoyed this book. The story can feel disjointed especially near the end. But the impact is significant. I need to re-read this as there are some many different threads of hints and layers of meaning throughout the book.
A couple of a favorite quotes:
"So sometimes is best she keep silent. After all, don't care how you want to sit there and deny knowledge of River Mumma sitting on her rock -- don't care how you deny the knowledge of fallen angels who can jump into your body as they please, or the knowledge of ancestors who sit beside your bed and watch when they not harkening on to the sounds of drumming -- don't care how you deny any of it, all of it, still true. All of them thing still exist, because them do not need the permission of your belief. But I talk those things careful and slow, cause I learn my lesson good. I taking time with my story. I know the value of silence. Sometimes silence can save you from being locked up. Sometimes silence is all that we have left."
"You see, every story stretches in two directions -- creeping into a past, galloping toward a future. And every writer is searching for something -- himself, his mother, the truth."
This is the first book I've read where a character, a writer, directly addresses the reader and makes a very haunting plea at the conclusion.
I enjoyed this book. The story can feel disjointed especially near the end. But the impact is significant. I need to re-read this as there are some many different threads of hints and layers of meaning throughout the book.
A couple of a favorite quotes:
"So sometimes is best she keep silent. After all, don't care how you want to sit there and deny knowledge of River Mumma sitting on her rock -- don't care how you deny the knowledge of fallen angels who can jump into your body as they please, or the knowledge of ancestors who sit beside your bed and watch when they not harkening on to the sounds of drumming -- don't care how you deny any of it, all of it, still true. All of them thing still exist, because them do not need the permission of your belief. But I talk those things careful and slow, cause I learn my lesson good. I taking time with my story. I know the value of silence. Sometimes silence can save you from being locked up. Sometimes silence is all that we have left."
"You see, every story stretches in two directions -- creeping into a past, galloping toward a future. And every writer is searching for something -- himself, his mother, the truth."
May 12, 2012
I gave this book 4.5/5 stars on my blog, InsatiableBooksluts.com. (A digital ARC was provided by Coffee House Press)
Review excerpt:
"The story switches between a cool retelling by Mr. Writer Man, as Adamine calls him, and her own testimony of her life, which she sends nightly into the wind. Mystery after mystery about Pearline, Adamine, the lepers, and even Mr. Writer Man unfold easily, blooming with elegant timing and driving the story forward. The changing points of view presented a small speed-bump in my reading at first, but I figured it out fairly quickly and enjoyed the different perspectives: Adamine, giving us the soul of her memory, and Mr. Writer Man with his research and facts. The narrative switch-up contributed to the feeling that the book had been researched and written as a non-fiction account, which I appreciated. Once I hit a groove with Warner Woman, I didn’t want to put it down."
View the full review on our site.
Review excerpt:
"The story switches between a cool retelling by Mr. Writer Man, as Adamine calls him, and her own testimony of her life, which she sends nightly into the wind. Mystery after mystery about Pearline, Adamine, the lepers, and even Mr. Writer Man unfold easily, blooming with elegant timing and driving the story forward. The changing points of view presented a small speed-bump in my reading at first, but I figured it out fairly quickly and enjoyed the different perspectives: Adamine, giving us the soul of her memory, and Mr. Writer Man with his research and facts. The narrative switch-up contributed to the feeling that the book had been researched and written as a non-fiction account, which I appreciated. Once I hit a groove with Warner Woman, I didn’t want to put it down."
View the full review on our site.
April 13, 2023
Kei Miller introduces us to different interesting characters in The Last Warner Woman starting with a young lady who knitted purple doily to sell. This purple doily leads her to a leper colony run by a white man.
We follow Adamine Bustamante who is born with the gift of warnings, a seer whose prophesies land her in a mental institution in England.
Set in Spanish Town, Jamaica and full of culture. This book deals with themes like mental health, misogyny, cultural acceptance and religion.
The writing stlye is a mix of prose and poetry. With pages called ‘an instalment of a testimony spoken to the wind’ which I have come to think about as the ramblings of the Warner Woman.
Every book must begin somewhere, but it is different places for different people. For the reader, it’s the first line in the first chapter. For the writer, it begins somewhere else altogether. This passage reminded me about something Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ said during a talk about A Spell of Good Things. I think it will be a question I will ask authors when I talk to them.
I loved the character development in this book. It got me invested in even the smaller characters like Bruce Young.
August 23, 2013
This was an interesting story, from leper colony to asylum. I wish it were a book club book because it would be really good for discussion. This is a book where I can't tell yet how much I might have liked it, thus the 3 stars and possibly a change up to 4. The upgrade happens when I can't stop talking about a book I have read to other people and we will see if that happens. Excellent characters and story plot throughout I am just not sure if this is my kind of book yet or not. SEE? All this dilemma might make me rate it a 4. A book I have to ponder usually ranks high simply for keeping my mind on it.
April 7, 2013
The narrative nicely transforms the identity of the two narrators into unexpected allies. Each turn of the story reveals a new attribute to the lives playing out their quest for knowledge for one and their desire to be for the other. The story ends in a way that leaves you both satisfied and longing for more.
May 13, 2019
Haunting and Healing.
September 9, 2019
This was my first contact with Jamaican literature. It was a pleasant short visit, I enjoyed the little that I saw of Jamaica. The story itself is so confusing! It jumps from this to that, from here to there, but it does so while teaching you some valuable life lessons. This I enjoyed immensely. I got lost in the accents and the parables, to a point of irritation sometimes. I am not afraid to admit that I am not fully equipped for this type of narration.
February 28, 2021
The writing, my goodness. 4.5 stars
October 28, 2017
"Once upon a time there was a leper colony in Jamaica" [opening sentence]. This is a story of Pearline Portious and a purple doily, or maybe not.
This is a story about Time and how it affects us, maybe so.
The egg of a white fowl is broken in water, the sign of a journey is issued as it shapes into a boat for the believing eyes of Mother Ada, and true enough, she embarks on a move from Spanish Town Jamaica to Warwickshire England to another era of her life.
"The sun travelled across the sky, and men and women followed it on its own small journeys, leading cows to grass, hauling crocus bags of food from the ground, or just pressing on, pressing on like pilgrims."
So then this is a story of writers and how they care to tell their stories, well now that's one way of looking at it. As the story alternates between voices. That of the writer's narration and that of Adamine/Pearline, voicing secrets in hushed tones, in shhhhhh Chapters.
"Sometimes this Writer Man take five different stories and make them into one. Sometimes the things he puts down not untrue, but they never happen in that order."
"Every book must begin somewhere, but it begins in different places for different people. If you are the reader, then things goot going at chapter One the first sentence...but for the Writer, the book would have begun somewhere else altogether."
At age 62 Adamine Bustamante receives an offer from a Writer Man to help him write a story about a Warner Woman.
"It was you who came looking for me"
"Just as every fruit don't name mango, and just as every animal don't name dog, so too the Warner Woman is not only full of thunder and lightning"
"The cry of the Warner Woman is warrant...the hardest one of all and one that is full of persecution but not so full of pay"
This really is no sweet story; but rather a potpourri of persecutions: women raped, mothers separated from their babies, women beaten, lovers sold, immigrants robbed of the dignity of religious persuation: noted as Religious Persuation - None, prophets secluded to mental asylum, and Seasons instigating creative suicides. A story of knowing one's own. Such are the hues and tints, the fragrances and petals swirled into this book titled The Last Warner Woman.
This is a story about Time and how it affects us, maybe so.
The egg of a white fowl is broken in water, the sign of a journey is issued as it shapes into a boat for the believing eyes of Mother Ada, and true enough, she embarks on a move from Spanish Town Jamaica to Warwickshire England to another era of her life.
"The sun travelled across the sky, and men and women followed it on its own small journeys, leading cows to grass, hauling crocus bags of food from the ground, or just pressing on, pressing on like pilgrims."
So then this is a story of writers and how they care to tell their stories, well now that's one way of looking at it. As the story alternates between voices. That of the writer's narration and that of Adamine/Pearline, voicing secrets in hushed tones, in shhhhhh Chapters.
"Sometimes this Writer Man take five different stories and make them into one. Sometimes the things he puts down not untrue, but they never happen in that order."
"Every book must begin somewhere, but it begins in different places for different people. If you are the reader, then things goot going at chapter One the first sentence...but for the Writer, the book would have begun somewhere else altogether."
At age 62 Adamine Bustamante receives an offer from a Writer Man to help him write a story about a Warner Woman.
"It was you who came looking for me"
"Just as every fruit don't name mango, and just as every animal don't name dog, so too the Warner Woman is not only full of thunder and lightning"
"The cry of the Warner Woman is warrant...the hardest one of all and one that is full of persecution but not so full of pay"
This really is no sweet story; but rather a potpourri of persecutions: women raped, mothers separated from their babies, women beaten, lovers sold, immigrants robbed of the dignity of religious persuation: noted as Religious Persuation - None, prophets secluded to mental asylum, and Seasons instigating creative suicides. A story of knowing one's own. Such are the hues and tints, the fragrances and petals swirled into this book titled The Last Warner Woman.
June 27, 2021
✏️ “A man may have muscle and fist, but if him don’t have Jesus, if him only have evil in his heart, then he sure to avoid people like me, Warner Women, who could call down God on him rass.”
✏️ “Mama plenty people in this world have ears but they don’t know how to hear. And plenty of them have eyes, but they don’t know how to see.”
~ Kei Miller, The Last Warner Woman 🇯🇲
.
.
What beautiful writing! This story held my interest from the very first sentence – “Once upon a time there was a leper colony in Jamaica”. If those first four well-known words that begin many fairy tales led you to believe you were about to embark on a journey of great storytelling …. you would be absolutely correct. The author’s poetry background played a major role in the beautiful telling of this story as there seemed to be a rhythm to the narration. At first it was slightly difficult to follow the narrative structure employed because the story is told from different POVs which alternate but after a while and it became clear this was a dual-narrative story and who the narrators were it was easy to follow. As each narrator tells their part, the story of Adamine Bustamante unfolds as she emigrates from Jamaica to England; from leper colony to Revivalist to asylum. Although the story dealt with serious issues and hardships in the characters’ lives, there was humour interwoven to temper the heaviness of the topics explored. Would be a great book for discussion. Such an engaging read! Definitely recommend!
✏️ “Mama plenty people in this world have ears but they don’t know how to hear. And plenty of them have eyes, but they don’t know how to see.”
~ Kei Miller, The Last Warner Woman 🇯🇲
.
.
What beautiful writing! This story held my interest from the very first sentence – “Once upon a time there was a leper colony in Jamaica”. If those first four well-known words that begin many fairy tales led you to believe you were about to embark on a journey of great storytelling …. you would be absolutely correct. The author’s poetry background played a major role in the beautiful telling of this story as there seemed to be a rhythm to the narration. At first it was slightly difficult to follow the narrative structure employed because the story is told from different POVs which alternate but after a while and it became clear this was a dual-narrative story and who the narrators were it was easy to follow. As each narrator tells their part, the story of Adamine Bustamante unfolds as she emigrates from Jamaica to England; from leper colony to Revivalist to asylum. Although the story dealt with serious issues and hardships in the characters’ lives, there was humour interwoven to temper the heaviness of the topics explored. Would be a great book for discussion. Such an engaging read! Definitely recommend!
February 19, 2021
Whatever white man believe in with all his heart - that thing name religion; whatever black woman believe in, that name superstition.’ Ademine Bustamante - The Last Warner Woman
This book - oh Kei the writer that you are - gave me a steady buildup but played heavily on perspective and how one story has several faces. Adamine is a Jamaican native who answers a spiritual calling and becomes what is known as a Warner Woman, revered highly in Jamaica as having the gift of discernment - seeing and knowing ahead of others and receiving ultimate guidance from the gods. However her life takes a very unfortunate turn when she travels to England and is not so well received. The glorious prophet of God whose voice reigned like a trumpet sending sounds of alarm from the gates of Heaven now a voice with a language and a message never to be received.
A recurring theme in this body of work and many others I have read from black authors is blackness and how elements related to Africana are associated negatively. A powerful book with a beautiful ending. I shan’t say more than this!
Okay maybe one more point...highly appreciated how Kei mentioned Jane Eyre as one of the character’s favourite book. If you’ve read Jane Eyre you would remember that Rochester’s ‘Caribbean’ wife descends to ‘madness’ when she travels to England. A similar fate for Ademine.
@millerkei - Ode to the strength of a black woman!!!
This book - oh Kei the writer that you are - gave me a steady buildup but played heavily on perspective and how one story has several faces. Adamine is a Jamaican native who answers a spiritual calling and becomes what is known as a Warner Woman, revered highly in Jamaica as having the gift of discernment - seeing and knowing ahead of others and receiving ultimate guidance from the gods. However her life takes a very unfortunate turn when she travels to England and is not so well received. The glorious prophet of God whose voice reigned like a trumpet sending sounds of alarm from the gates of Heaven now a voice with a language and a message never to be received.
A recurring theme in this body of work and many others I have read from black authors is blackness and how elements related to Africana are associated negatively. A powerful book with a beautiful ending. I shan’t say more than this!
Okay maybe one more point...highly appreciated how Kei mentioned Jane Eyre as one of the character’s favourite book. If you’ve read Jane Eyre you would remember that Rochester’s ‘Caribbean’ wife descends to ‘madness’ when she travels to England. A similar fate for Ademine.
@millerkei - Ode to the strength of a black woman!!!
September 20, 2011
This seems to me to be a book about truth, where the truth lies, and what truth means. One narrator (described disparagingly by the other narrator as "the writer-man") seems to be telling the story in linear fashion - a "proper" story. His efforts are derailed when the Warner woman, the subject of the story, discovers what he's up to and begins telling the story her own way. Each narrator struggles to tell their version, ricocheting off each other's words, until finally they collide, revealing - perhaps - the real truth of what happened.
It is also a book about perceptions: about how a Warner woman in Jamaica can be seen as natural, but in Britain, she is seen as insane. Perhaps on a broader level, it is also about the way the white colonial narrative enforces itself upon people, even when we are unaware of it. It is certainly a damning indictment of the way black people have been treated in the British mental health system.
Worth reading for anyone who can stand a little unreliable narration.
It is also a book about perceptions: about how a Warner woman in Jamaica can be seen as natural, but in Britain, she is seen as insane. Perhaps on a broader level, it is also about the way the white colonial narrative enforces itself upon people, even when we are unaware of it. It is certainly a damning indictment of the way black people have been treated in the British mental health system.
Worth reading for anyone who can stand a little unreliable narration.
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