![]() ![]() A lot of my characters are complex and unlikeable. What I learned from reading Toni Morrison is that I didn't want stock characters. I didn't want to shy away from the brutality of slavery, but I also didn't want to shy away from how brutal slaves could be to each other. What if somebody dragged them into a huge, murderous rebellion plot? Q: How did you go about creating Lilith and Homer, and was it difficult writing women characters? A: Lilith is the protagonist, but she also murdered nine people in the book. ![]() I wondered what would happen if these slavewomen had a secret government that nobody knew about. When I was figuring out the novel, I sat down with an African poet I know, and she told me about African society and its matriarchal structure. The idea of an all women-conceived rebellion is pretty fictitious, for nothing like that happened. Q: What interested you in putting an impending slave rebellion at the center of your new novel? A: In Jamaica, there were always slave rebellions. Paul, Minn., where he spoke by telephone with freelance writer Dylan Foley. James teaches creative writing at Macalester College in St. His first novel, "John Crow's Devil," was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. James, 38, was raised in Kingston, Jamaica. ![]()
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