NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In the 1960s, the little country of Jamaica gained independence from England, and begun discarding over 400 years of Spanish and British domination, racism and classism; and unleashing some of the greatest creative talents in music, sports, dance, and intellectual applications.

A Reason For Living, a first novel written mostly between 1966 to 1968, by teenage Jamaican writer, Julian Jingles, captures this unique period in Jamaica's history. He has established careers, spanning five decades, as a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and entrepreneur, in America and Jamaica.

Jamaica's cultural genius has given the world five genres of popular music; Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Dub, and Dancehall. Talented personalities emerged mainly in sports and music to garner world attention, such as George Kerr, Collie Smith, Lenox "Billy" Miller, Allan "Skill" Cole, Donald Quarrie, Merlene Ottey, Harry Belafonte, Millie Small, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, The Skatalites, Monty Alexander, Rico Rodriguez, Ernest Ranglin, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Cecil "Prince Buster" Campbell, Arthur "Duke" Reid, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Chris Blackwell, Rex Nettleford, Madge Sinclair, and in international politics Michael Manley, and many others.

But alongside these achievements existed deep, widespread social and economic discontent, fueling violence; pitting segments of the suffering masses against each other, ignorantly and arrogantly perpetrating partisan politics, and vying criminals against the police.   

The novel profoundly captures these troubled but phenomenally creative times, when the "rude boys" emerged, expressing anti-state, anti-social, rebellious lifestyles, identifiable with young males living throughout the capital city Kingston. Gangs namely Phantom, Mau Mau, Pigeon, Skull, Spanglers, Idaho, Untouchables, Spoilers, Vikings, Hot Steppers, Shower Posse, and Phoenix drove fear into many Kingstonians, battling each other, protecting turfs and invading others.

A Reason For Living delves into love, sex, music and sports, and the roles of Rastafari, and the American Civil Rights and Black Power movements that impacted Jamaica. It tells the story of a physically beautiful country, of warm, humorous, enterprising, and crafty people with the urge to succeed, fighting against inequality, injustice, prejudice, and discrimination. It's the story of a revolution that could have happened in Jamaica. Every page grabs you.

Available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, iUniverse.com, and bookstores.

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SOURCE Julian Jingles