A maximalist’s banquet: It is humane, blood-flecked, disturbing and sustaining ... James has written a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far ... One of the signal reading experiences of my adult life. It sank knives deep into my heart. I’m still in recovery from it.
A harrowing, hilarious, magnificent novel that will stand the test of time ... He invents his own literary language, horny yet tender, punctuated by puns and music and elegant flourishes. He jolts the narrative sideways and backwards, thumping his suspense line like an expert bassist ... His defiant queer epic belongs to us all.
James’s dialogue fountains down the page, as if a tap has been opened. Life pours from him ... Uses the tricks of fiction to pull off something extremely difficult: giving full weight to tragedy and injustice without implying that some lives are over before they’ve begun.
It carries you off like a tidal wave. Churning with passion and ideas, history and wit, graphic sex and graphic violence, the book howls with so much pain and anger ... While this vicious assault is only a tiny part of the book, James makes it indelible. And far from gratuitous. Like such towering modern novelists as Gabriel García Márquez, Toni Morrison, Roberto Bolano and Elena Ferrante, James uses physical violence to explore social violence, the structures of oppression that its victims must fight to survive ... what makes the book unforgettable is the raw energy of James' storytelling, his ability to conjure up all the many textures of lived experience, including hope. He takes readers deep inside his characters and deep into their world, from the local nuances of skin color and class to the way that fear can actually heighten sexual pleasure.
The novel opens up many pleasures for literary readers, in its pacing, in its observations, and especially in the ventriloquism of Havelock’s old-school prose. But it’s not, mostly, a book about pleasure ... A harrowing book, to be sure, but never nihilist, or defeatist, or cynical. Its joy in ultimate survival comes through.
Epic, immersive, and devasting ... Dark as this sounds, The Disappearers isn’t without hope, and not everyone who reckons with its central injustice will be destroyed by it ... The masterstroke of The Disappearers is that James lands the finish, a feat of generosity, compassion, and, as with the rest of this unforgettable book, unconquerable bravado.
Both a work of fiction and an act of critical fabulation ... Without question an excellent book, one that grapples deftly with the stakes of living a full life in a country that would prefer you dead and openly sanctions it ... The Disappearers is most exciting to me when I think of it as a provocation to Jamaican audiences.
The unrelentingly raw and profane vision is enlivened by the energy of the writing, and in particular its infusions of Jamaican slang ... Suggests an emotional urgency to the material, which may explain why the writing feels so despairing and disorderly—and why the ending, which I think is meant to represent a startling culmination of events, seems merely tacked on. However difficult the novel’s pain and desperation may be to endure, though, they leave a mark on the memory.
The pages of this incomparable epic are fueled by desire and torched by rage ... The length of The Disappearers — some 616 pages — is only its most obvious challenge. Far greater are the difficulties posed by its eclectic structure, its mercurial style, and its explicit content ... Sometimes feels more committed to its narrators than to its readers ... So, there’s no denying this is a monumental novel — already longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize — but is it a monument you want to climb? ... I finished The Disappearers glad to have read it but equally glad to be done with it. To the extent that it’s a great novel, it’s also an ordeal.
At times, the book can feel repetitive, like we are covering the same ground again and again, as the characters rehash the attack. While many readers will appreciate his recreation of a lost, hidden world to the exclusion of much else, others might yearn for more focus, for the kind of intricate plotting we saw in A Brief History. But perhaps this unravelled feeling is simply because the rage that underlies this novel is unfinished — this book means it can no longer be ignored.
A bleak and uncompromising exploration of rage and survival; of trauma and its afterlife ... The formal design, however, is not without flaws. The overlong narrative sags in places, tarrying where it should speed along ... Ultimately, these are redeemable shortcomings in an otherwise remarkable novel.
Could this Jamaica-set, Booker-nominated novel see James win the coveted prize a second time? It would be a deserved triumph if so. The Disappearers packs a punch on every single one of its 600-plus pages, up to and including its last ... It’s an epic, virtuosic, propulsive performance, alternately hilarious and viscerally horrifying, that returns throughout to the acts of erasure perpetrated against, and forced upon, the men at its heart.
Treads ground not dissimilar to that of A Brief History ... The Disappearers, unfortunately, works its magic to much less convincing effect ... At least his slick work with language, and his inhabiting of voice, are still a wonder. At its best, the writing in The Disappearers comes close to prose poetry ... The Disappearers, overall, proves a propulsive reading experience.
A writer of extraordinary talent and ambition. ... If you’re new to James’s work, be ready for a challenging read, but one that will be well worth your time. His style is expansive and freewheeling ... James calls the novel his most autobiographical to date, and his great accomplishment here is his generous and honest portrayal of men.
One hell of a book, and at times, a shocking one ... A good book can lift your spirits, brighten your day or add some spice to a dull life, but the truly great books change how you think, what you see and, hopefully, how you live. The Disappearers is one of those.
Captivating and epic ... James renders his characters’ tumultuous inner lives with striking imagery and energy; their dialogue is rapid, keen, and hard-hitting. In all, a gritty, powerful, and gripping read.
