Catch a Fire by Timothy White: An Account of Robert Marley's Life

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Catch a Fire: Review of the Latest Edition
Catch a Fire by Timothy White is an updated edition of the original 1983 biographic novel about the life, music, and ideologies of a famous Jamaican singer, Robert Nesta Marley. Using a captivating narrative and strong plot, the author has attempted to reveal unusual insight into Marley's personality, views and beliefs, musical evolution and innovation, and career. The fact that Timothy was an expert on Caribbean music, especially reggae music, lends credence to this biography. Furthermore, his connection to Marley's family provided him easy access to his records, and he also got a first-hand experience of his personality, attitude, beliefs, and choices. Therefore, this review of the novel Cath a Fire attempts to analyze these aspects of the novel to evaluate its literary credibility as an authentic and realistic account of Robert Marley's life.
Since the novel is based on the biography of a real-life character, the novel's plot is not as smooth, and it is interspersed with aberration and unexpected twists that one faces in real life. However, what makes this novel a much more credible source about Marley's life is that Timothy White had a good relationship with Marley's family members, especially his widow and his closest friends. Therefore, he had access to all records of Marley's life, including his memoirs, family and professional photographs, and personal details like birth certificates, musical contracts, and many others, as he reveals the ambiguity about his birth certificate in the following line: Several thorough searches by Jamaican archivists of all available records have yet to produce a birth certificate for Bob Marley" (White 12). So, the storyline and the plot of the novel include the life events, personality traits, and experiences, and it is not wrong to state that this biographic novel covers Marley's life events with meticulous details. Another significant feature of this novel is that the fact described via the storyline were accrued via extensive research, and they are explained in the novel in easy and understandable language. Timothy also utilized the services of a Marley expert to shape and trim the storyline on realistic lines. In his preface, he also mentioned the painstaking efforts to compile this biography and the difficulties he faced during the process (White 19).
About the significance of this novel as Marley's biographic account, it is crucial to understand that this story is a detailed account of this singer's life and provides a real place for his music in the context of Jamaican music of the 1970s. White also mentions the belief of Marley's followers that he was, like Emperor Haile Selassie, was not born and could not die (12). Bob Marley belonged to a religious cult named Rastafarianism, and this religious view significantly shaped his personality and music. Therefore, right at the beginning of the novel, the author provides a detailed account of the causes behind this creed's inception and its spread. This background detail of the religion Marley practiced and got inspiration serves as a fundamental instrument to delve deep into the views and life events of Bob Marley. Without understanding this cult's basic id...