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What: <span style="color: #3333FF">Fictionalised account of a true story</span>
Where: <span style="color: #3333FF">Jamaica and England</span>
When: <span style="color: #3333FF">Late 50's early 60's</span>
Who: <span style="color: #3333FF">Beverly East, whose family the story is based on</span>
Language: <span style="color: #3333FF">Standard English</span>
Suitability: <span style="color: #3333FF">Everyone 13+ </span>
Size: <span style="color: #3333FF">247p</span>
(from inside cover
The first week of September... That time of year should have been a celebration of new beginnings - a time when children go back to school and business people start hoping for a great year-end. But on a tragic Sunday evening in 1957, a passenger excursion train left Montego Bay for Kingston and met disaster halfway there. Dangerously overcrowded, it had rushed down towards Jamaica’s central plains on its way back to the capital. Sometime after midnight, in wet conditions, the train derailed near Kendal, Manchester, creating a horrific tangle of wood, glass, steel and torn bodies.
Of the 254 lives lost, 14, nearly 6 percent of the dead, were members of Beverley East’s family.
Her compelling novel draws upon both factual and fictionalised accounts of the impact of these events on those who survived and the generations of Jamaicans who emerged from their decimated ranks.
The stage is set for the Reaper of Souls when the Scotts leave three of their children at home before boarding the ill-fated excursion train. Eve, the youngest, has taken ill. Older sister Esther is told to tend Eve, as she has always done. Austin, thier big brother, volunteers to stay with them. But news of the tragedy soon comes over the radio, and it quickly becomes evident that they're all that's left of the family.
With a new wave of the Great West Indian Migration to England underway, relatives arrange for the three orphaned children to join them there. Esther refuses to go, and so begins a spiral of grief, regret, and longing in the two hemispheres. Beverly East has created characters that grab the readers heartstrings and don't let go as they struggle to find purpose and joy after suffering the depths of despair.
The Kendal Crash is still the worst disaster in Jamaica's living memory, an event which many yet struggle to confront in the half century since it occured. For more than two years, the author transferred her life back to the island to reconnect phisically and spiritually with her ancestral roots as she researched the event. Reaper of Souls claims power over what had eluded her for so long - the truth about Kendal and a sense of closure in the face of so much tragedy in one family.
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Although not usually drawn to books of this nature, I'm glad that I've read it. There's a detailed description of the train trip, and one can almost picture the whole event as it occured. But for those with weak stomachs, the actual crash is only a small part of the book.
The well developed characters are likeable, and it is interesting to see how different people cope with such monumental loss. Not only that, with England in the picture, it is interesting to see how some people blend in and adapt to foreign land quickly, whole others will never feel at home outside Jamaica.
Numerous sub-plots occur and the reader is kept entertained til the end. There are a few areas where it seems the author fast forwards and leaves out some action while stating the result. This may have been result of editing, but is tolerable.
There are numerous photographs and Gleaner articles about the event which are interesting to see and read.
I recommend it. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]