Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The brief information on Jon Michael Miller on the back cover of Jamaica Girl concludes that the Saint Petersburg, Florida, resident "travels to Jamaia whenever he can."
The depth of detail and intimacy with the subject in his novel Jamaica Girl hint that he has racked up more frequent flyer miles than an Air Jamaica in-flight attendant. And that when Mr. Miller comes to Jamaica he stays.
Jamaica Girl is a heck of a book. Actually, a better description is the word that Glenn Webber (the main character, who is a photographer just as the author has been in a multifaceted working career) asks his Jamaican friend Duane to explain the meaning of on page 169.
As the book reads, "Duane hesitated, then told him it was a blood clot from a woman's period, in particular the Virgin Mary".
While the storyline of the book remains the same no matter how many times you read through its 438 pages, there are two ways to look at the fictional tale, as Glenn Webber and Rosalind Mitchell move from an initial meeting as she hitchhikes between Negril and Lucea to living together in a cottage in western Jamaica blissfully. Their union is accompanied by her growth from a shy, illiterate though certainly not unassertive girl just into her teens (yup, you read right, just in her teens, more on that anon) into a confident festival queen who takes the national title when she suggests "less hands out and more eyes bright" for tourism.
lacklustre about life
And Glenn, a middle-aged American, moves from being lacklustre about life and overweight to, on the final page (by which in the next year Rosalind would be 18 and he planned to marry her and take her to the US), walking to the edge of a cliff and doing "a perfect swan dive into the blue-green sea", a happy man.
One perspective is that of a fairytale, complete with the happy ending, as a chance meeting ends up in an epic love story, with a young girl being showered with gifts by her Prince Charming, being the perfect model for his lens, loving him despite her mother and aunt seeing him as a meal ticket, losing her virginity to him and staying true (well, if you don't count fingers) through temptation when he leaves her for an extended period.
The other viewpoint from which the story can be taken (and it certainly is not written that way) is of a nasty white American man having a ball with an underage, eager, ignorant native girl, complete with narcissistic descriptions of her admiring his pale body as he sleeps.
Whichever way the reader chooses, it is still a page 169 (see above) tale.
SKILLFUL
And it also includes scheming, intrigue, murder, whitemail, visits to the provider of spells nearest you, near prostitution, licky licky police, Jamaican 'runnings' and, of course, sex.
The writer's skill is evident throughout Jamaica Girl, but the scene in which Roslaind has penetrative sex for the first time is especially tender. Miller warms to his subject (pun intended) as "he soon began to respond with movements of his own, a slow, genuine accommodation of mutual comfort and then of pleasure, so that their bodies shifted a bit here, a little there, until their groins were pressing at the most sensitive points, with tiny movements, intensely erotic..."
"Oh Glenn," she whispered."
Heady stuff indeed.
Especially impressive is his attention to detail in situations that are way outside the ken of even community tourism, with details of his trip (and Rosalind's visits) to the Black Cherry go-go club, the home which Rosalind visits to get a potion to 'tie' Webber (and gets her guts in knots with the vile liquid for her troubles) and the waterfall and stream in the hills above Lucea where the young country miss grown into near international model lives.
The perspectives of a foreigner on Jamaica are striking. Before Glenn and Rosalind have sex, his Jamaican friend Duane, met on previous visits, asked if he has yet "kill it". Glenn is shocked and it leads to a discussion between the two about how women are treated. Duane explains that with his woman Nicole, "she do for me, me do for her". Glenn replies: "...Maybe it's a Jamaican thing. But that's not the way I am. I'll feel responsible for her. I can't just think about my own lust, you know? I can't just play with her then throw her away like a used toy." To which Duane advises: Me tell you man, have some fun. Do it to her, then go home... Give her something, some nice clothes, some money. Then she's better off than most country girls. But don't worry for her. Jamaica girl strong, man. Believe me, Jamaica girl can carry on for them own self".
NOT WELCOME
Then there is the attitude of the people in the hotel Glenn was staying with initially, who incurred Glenn's wrath by making it clear that his guest Roaslind was not welcome to eat there.
Mitchell's book is not kind to the two Rastafarian characters (Roaslind's brother, Horace, who is happy to take the money Glenn gave to her in order to 'buy out' a charge he is on, but advises "don't ever part your legs for him. That bad, wicked thing for you. Make you white girl, evil girl.") and Winston, the sleazy boyfriend of Glenn's eventual partner in a Jamaican hotel business, Trish.
And Mitchell's patois dialogue could do with some brushing up, but hey, what the heck.
