No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley by Rita Marley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
With the Bob Marley movie, One Love, dominating my social media feeds I decided to read “No Woman No Cry” a memoir written by Rita Marley. As a Jamaican who grew up not far from his house in Kingston there were several of the facts of his life that I was always aware of, but I had never really learned of things from the perspective of his wife.
I learned many interesting details from reading Rita discuss her early life with Bob and how they struggled to make ends meet like so many other young, impoverished couples.
I know memoirs are often not linear in structure, but this one felt especially disjointed at times. The timelines for how the story was told didn’t always make sense and sometimes details were included that seem to come out of nowhere. This made the story difficult to follow in parts.
I also think this book was just not well written. It’s written like someone might talk but that does not translate well to the reader. This was distracting enough that if I had not been interested in the story, I might have put the book down. This is especially true in the rambling chapters that occur after Bob’s death.
I think Rita is a strong woman who was loyal to her role as Bob’s partner if not a traditional “wife”. However, I do think there were details glossed over that may have made Rita less sympathetic to the audience.
Overall, I liked this book though I didn’t love it and I did learn some interesting new information.
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One Love
Since finishing the book, I saw the Bob Marley movie, One Love. Very well done! The actor clearly took the time to learn the mannerisms and speaking patterns of Bob and embodied him well. A friend told me today she might have needed subtitles which made me chuckle but also made it clear that he had done the accent justice.
I am glad that I read RIta’s book at around the same time as I saw the film. Information from her memoir added depth to what I was seeing on screen.
The music in the film was amazing! Definitely a proud moment to see Jamaica on display so authentically (the good, the bad, and the ugly) on the big screen.
