A Bleak, Violent Novel’s Unexpected Delights

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Before his latest book, Marlon James hadn’t written a novel set in Jamaica in more than a decade.

In the years following his Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings , the author focused on his Dark Star Trilogy , set in a fantasy universe.

But after that long literary detour, he returned to the land of his birth in his new novel, The Disappearers —which is set primarily in Kingston and follows a group of characters, all queer Jamaican men, who meet while rehearsing a play that will never be seen.

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic ’s Books section: Hard-luck men in hardscrabble towns “Disunion,” a short story by Kurt Andersen A deeply layered novel about masculinity “Stance,” a poem by Deborah Garrison For this group, which gathers in secret in 1988, seeing and being seen are matters of life and death.

The Kingston they inhabit is murderously homophobic, and accordingly, the novel can be quite bleak.

But The Disappearers offers some delights too.

Recently, in her article about the book for The Atlantic , Stephanie Burt noted that “the novel opens up many pleasures for literary readers,” who may recognize the numerous titles and references sprinkled throughout.

I was deeply affected by how, almost universally, the characters seek out anything that proves that gay life exists on a larger scale.

Lowbrow works, such as porn films and magazines, are most accessible; Playgirl and Hustler are name-checked.

The songs of Boy George, Sylvester, and Prince are lifelines—the homoerotic cover of Prince’s 1988 album, Lovesexy , is an especially powerful beacon.

Many of the characters are well read, and they name-drop gay novels such as Andrew Holleran’s Dancer From the Dance and E.

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