When I first began reading this book, I went at it with a preconceived notion of what a novel should read like. Well I have since learned to place all my preconceived notions on layaway….long-term layaway. Andre Porter has done a very credible job in creating this work. The book brings to life the story of the "ROCK" a so called mafia linked Jamaican gang allegedly responsible for many atrocious crimes.

 

Beginning with the details of how the manuscript was passed on to its present owner (name withheld), it gives a depiction of why and what all who arrive on Americas’ shores as pilgrims from a different homeland are seeking…Opportunity. It shows how opportunity can arrive in many different forms albeit good or bad. Although some of the assorted statements can be disputed based on the timelines given, it is a documentary on the lives of these six individuals appropriately named "Blade", "Rice", "G-Money", "Buju", David, and "Industry". Blade is the leader of the group, and is said to be a great "influencer", or in other words a player able to easily navigate troubled waters. The book details their tumultuous rise from school boys to feared "Dons", and gives an exposure to life as a Jamaican kingpin that few people are able to experience. Their lives are brought to conscious existence from the narrated manuscript in a slow and deliberately subtle format. There is one particularly riveting scene in the early portions of the book, where one member witnesses a murder, and decides that he does not want to be labeled "informer", he pleads ignorance of the events when confronted by the police. For this show of "loyalty", the group is lead to their initial dealing with ‘Shabba", a feared player in the drug trade. Shabba kick starts the "ROCK" down the broad and destructive pathway, and with this assist, the road to ruin is set.

The only problem that I observed of course was the structure, or seeming lack of it in some areas. The scenery seems to hop scotch across the eighties and nineties with wild abandon. Never seeming to keep focus on one particular period. This will surely drive some readers to outbursts of frustration, until they remember that this is a writing based on outtakes from a manuscript, written third person. The novel presents a strikingly lifelike portrait of what it is like to have power over all, yet control over none, and takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride of unending emotional stress. The only thing one can do is to tie a knot in their rope and hang on for the journey, making sure to enjoy the scenery as it goes from picturesque to dismal and back again. While it leaves you in a quandary with the ending, it also leaves you desiring to learn more of what did actually occur. Alas we have to wait for the second epic.

A magnificent undertaking, given the circumstances by Mr. Porter. I am really looking forward to his subsequent works.