Marlon James's Personal Novel

Author Marlon James Explores Personal Trauma and Generation X in New Novel The Disappearers

Marlon James, author of "The Disappearers," has described his novel as a rare rarity among his novels. The book, which opens with journal entries from Eddy Porteus, a middle-class student in Kingston, Jamaica in 1988, follows Eddy's defining characteristic as he's gay. He is challenged by another character, Jordan Brown, who has been kicked out of his family and dropped out of school and now lives in his car. The story turns violent in the second section when a mob learns about the play, and the rest of the book explores the aftermath and how the trauma scars everyone involved. James, who grew up in Jamaica but now lives with his wife in Brooklyn, said the book is personal and is also a love letter to Gen X.