.
“A rebel? a cynic? a scoundrel? the living myth of personified rage, at the mercy of his neurotic legend? a sorcerer gone wrong? No. Not exclusively. Still another epithet was found for him: a retired criminal.”
Bound to violence
I read Penguin Classic’s new launch edition of this book this month. This prose is outlandish. It created freakish weather first and then pelted down on my nascent barn, like a devastating unseasonal hailstorm! Have you heard about the book and the controversy around it? I hadn’t. When I requested the book, I had no knowledge of the author or the book. Three things attracted me: first, Penguin’s logo; second, a theme on Africa, and third, the mention of John Updike in the blurb.
‘A startling energy of language’ John Updike, New Yorker,
How right is the assessment of Updike! After reading the book, I would say that, as of late, I have not witnessed such language in prose. Extremely powerful, too ocular for the mental eyes, brusque, and blunt, yet poetic and lyrical. Unapologetic. As straight as a die. Perhaps this was the reason the author paid a price for it through criticism. Or maybe not.
The book portrays the mass of Africa, victimized not by the coloniser from outside but by the ‘traditional colonizers’, and for this reason, it is stated that the author was labelled as a self-hating black man by the political leaders and intellectual elite there. This book was published in 1968 in French, and at that time, African authors were known to write in ‘predictable polite and classic French’. The book says: The author challenged the status quo with his radical portrayal and language at that time.
I don’t know if the author was successful or not, but when you read this book more than 50 years later, you still cannot ignore the might of language and its instantaneous ramifications. The forcefulness it generates in the reader’s mind is obvious and imposing in nature. In my opinion, this book is a piece of art. An act of sorcery performed by the author on paper. I have no doubt about this. I was utterly impressed by the writing. But this praise belongs to the craft and genius with which this book is written, not to the content of the book. The content in many places is too brutal, inhumane, remorseless, and sharp to digest without getting bruised for a faint-hearted reader. I also don’t know how authentic it is with respect to the history of various tribes and kingdom’s in Africa. The book tries to capture a very wide period of history within its few pages, and he did it in an august manner. I learned that ‘Malian writer rose to worldwide fame in 1968 with his Renaudot Prize, France’s second most prestigious literary honor; he was knocked to the ground and vilified by accusations of plagiarism and a subsequent lawsuit from the English writer Graham Greene.’
I can recommend this book to all those who want to see the craft of the author, but the content of the book is not for all. I thank Netgalley and Penguin Press for providing me with a copy.
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