By golly this book is unrelieved in its grimness. Reminiscent in style to Steinbeck but with no real relief. The characters are trapped in their narrative and so are you. I read half the novel and couldn’t bring myself to continue. ( )

The Hills Were Joyful Together, Roger Mais’ first novel, displays the promise exhibited by his later works. Taking place in a Kingston yard complex, Mais explores the challenges of Jamaica’s urban working class. The novel can be brutal and violent, yet there are notes of redemption along with a strain of social criticism throughout. The novel centers around the life of a neighborhood with subplots focusing on the emotional life of disempowered teenagers, a man cuckolded by his wife, the hard, mundane existence of women, and other vignettes. The second part of the novel coalesces on challenges faced by the character Surjue. Confined to prison as the result of a botched robbery, Serjue adjust to prison life while working to be reunited with his wife. The second part of the novel also shifts with the introduction of a Greek like chorus which Mais continued to use as a device in his novel Brother Man. The work feels full of this type of experimentation, and the introduction states that Mais was originally planning for the novel to be a trilogy. Mais seeks to show and encompass the full life of a Jamaican neighborhood, and with this, the full range of experience and emotion experienced by its denizens. Although there are many instances of kindness and reliance built by community bonds, there is also a strong note of futility. The social condition drives people to extremes and madness. Mais also critiques the various solutions sought after by the people with a hint of disdain at organized religion, communism, and the corruption of bureaucracies. Seemingly one note of hope is the idea of escape, off the island, where enemies and the cruel madness of life can’t reach a person. The other idea signalling that all is not lost is that, despite the cruelty we wreck upon each other, ultimately we will find salvation in each other as well. ( )

Roger Mais writes of poor people in Jamaica. His tales are moving and unforgettable. Don’t miss THE HILLS WERE JOYFUL TOGETHER, his 1st novel. ( )