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Title: MIDDLE PASSAGE by Charles R. Johnson ISBN: 0-684-85588-7 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.76 (37 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Middle Passage Falls Short of Its Destination
Comment: Set in 1830, Middle Passage is the story about an educated, freed slave named Rutherford Calhoun. Wishing to escape his debts and a marriage proposal, Calhoun boards the Republic, a ship bound for Africa to illegally pick up slaves. In his capacity, Calhoun is incapable of understanding or relating to the conditions and future life that the slaves, a group of magicians from the heart of Africa, will and do endure. The phrase "middle passage" refers not only to the journey the slaves take from their homeland in the bowels of the ship to America, but also Calhoun's transformation from a self-admitted thief, lier, and womanizer to a humble, broken man, willing to accept home and family as his future. Unfortunately, the transformation, while convincing, falls short with a clumsy attempt at romance in the final chapter of the text. Clocking in at a lean two hundred pages as a combination slave narrative and sea story and the winner of the National Book Award, most of the book was enjoyable, despite extremely graphic representations of bodily illnesses and decay from the long journey, until the end. There, I was left unsatisfied and disappointed.
Rating: 5
Summary: what a travesty...
Comment: Seeing some of these reviews confirms my notion about how the general public will praise crap like "The Da Vinci Code" or brain dead housewives will weep over the terrible "The Lovely Bones" or think pretentious, cliched narratives like "The Time Traveler's Wife" are worth exploring. This was the 1st CJ book I ever read, and from there I have read every one since. His best book is Oxherding Tale, but this comes in as a close second. 1st of all, I must respond to the rather biased nagative reviews claiming "how would an ex-slave speak so intellegently about Kant, etc..." well, the point here is that the "I" being used in the book isn't necessarily Rutheford at that point in time, but perhaps years later, or even after his death. "The Lovely Bones" is an awful book that attempts having a narrator who is dull as s**t speak after she is murdered. The one reviewer commenting about how certain railroads didn't exist until after the Civil War is probably the closest hint yr gonna get to show that this story is being told after his death, or much, much later. It's been a while since I read this book, but the descriptions are poetic and rich, and it's just sad how yet again the cliche is confirmed: take a great book like Middle Passage, and the reviews will be middling good. But take yr average sappy, bathetic Oprah pick, and housewives will be rolling on the floor. If you like real literature, this is for you. But if what you want is crap, then you won't get it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Finding Humor in Tragedy
Comment: This book was mandatory for my African American Literature course and I am glad that it was. It is impossible for anyone to imagine today what it would have been like for Africans to be taken from the comfort of their homes to be slaves in America. The only thing we could compare it to is being abducted by aliens if you really think about it. They were overtaken by people who looked very different than they did and who spoke an unknown language. They were put into giant ships of the likes they had never seen and many times, they were branded and always chained below decks. Many thought they were being taken to a foreign land to be eaten and often times the slavers would put slaves in groups with different tribes so that they could not communicate or comfort eachother due to a language barrier. They knew nothing of the world around them as people do today. The concept is, in truth, almost impossible to imagine.
Johnson studied about Middle Passage for something like seventeen years before writing this book, not to mention another six years studying maritime science. To be sure, there are a lot of fantastical occurrences within the book but that is why it is called fiction. I believe he does a phenomenal job with the character of Rutherford Calhoun...he's a liar, gambler, womanizer, and thief but there is something about him that puts the reader on his side. You will find yourself rooting for him all the way through the book.
The novel itself is indeed very graphic in description and includes things such as cannibalism so, if you have a weak stomach, BEWARE. The best things about this novel are its extremely dark humor,its fast pace, and its irony. As an avid reader, there is nothing I appreciate more than someone who can take a horrific experience and make it simultaneously poignant and funny. Not only is this a way of putting a face on the early days of slavery but it is a highly entertaining piece of fiction. I would recommend it to anyone looking for adventure on the high seas!
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Title: Beloved by Toni Morrison ISBN: 0452280621 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Oxherding Tale by Charles Johnson ISBN: 0452275032 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko ISBN: 0140086838 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Kindred by Octavia Butler ISBN: 0807083054 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Katherine by Anchee Min ISBN: 042515291X Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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