Slave Old Man
By Patrick Chamoiseau
Translated by Linda Coverdale
Printed by The New Press, 2018
Price: $19.99
The main character of this novel is exactly as described in its title: an old man slave. The story takes place in Martinique on a plantation ruled over by the Master and his terrible dog mastiff that makes Cujo seem like a toy poodle. I would say the dog reminds me most of a dire wolf from Game of Thrones!
The protagonist is so old that he took care of the Master when he was a child and nobody really knows exactly how long he has been alive. Everyone that knew has already died long ago. The old man is practically a model slave. He never causes trouble. He does what he is told.
He doesn't really socialize with the other slaves. He's kinda an enigma to everyone. So his fellow slaves start ascribing magical powers to him and even call on his services to be a healer. Even the Master thinks of him as something more special than a regular slave. He's a font of wisdom and lore, a historian of the plantation.
It's a big shock to everyone, when at the end of his time on this earth, the old slave decides to run away and seek his freedom in a forest known as the Great Woods. Of course, the Master and his monster dog are soon on his trail in hot pursuit!
The back of this book has all the "right" book review periodicals quoted....New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, etc. So you know this is supposed to be an "important book" written by a "important author". Hate to say it, but that usually turns me OFF.
This novel is "interesting", but reminded me a bit too much of a novel I had quit reading before starting this one. The problem I had with the previous book was that it felt like watching an unending stream of movie credits and all the time you are just waiting for the movie to start. It never did. I got the same impression from this book as well. Its only saving grace was that it was really short. If it had been about 50 pages longer I probably would not have finished it.
Chamoiseau seems to think he's saying something, even if he's not very clear what that something is. We have the old slave, the Master, and the dog but they get swallowed up in stream of consciousness mumbo jumbo that gets boring after a while. There are some good bits but you have to deal with a lot of purple prose to get to them.
The elements I enjoyed the most were when Chamoiseau brought in Creole culture and folktales as background and foreground to the old slave's tale. The characters seemed like ones out of folktale or myth: primal, powerful, iconic. It was when the author tried to show their thought processes and bring them down to earth that the book became more mundane.
All in all, this was an ok read and definitely gets me interested in trying another work by the same author.
My Grade: C
No comments:
Post a Comment