Patrick Chamoiseau

I'm a little obsessed with myths and folktales. So everything I say is in the context of that. If you don't like reading myths, folktales or fairy tales, then skip on down to the next book.

As far as mythology books go, this one was superb. Up there with the best I've read. Whether through the strength of the story teller (its' a little cliche, but you really do get the feeling that he's sitting

there by you telling these stories) or through the flavour of the Creole tales themselves, I don't know.… (more)

Like most whypipo, I knew very little about the history of Martinique. This author brings the history of this tiny island to life. Starting in the 1700s, when bekes (white) owned humans kidnapped, or born, into slavery, and forced them with overseer whips to work in their Fields, their houses, make babies with them, through the 1800s, when Abolition created a false freedom, to the fight for keeping their tiny hutches in their shantytowns, Chamoiseau shares the word of the Storyteller, who stood in front and took blow after blow for the right to exist.… (more)

Not even gonna pretend: there’s a ton in this book that I just did not understand despite my best efforts. “Slave Old Man” is incredibly dense despite being only 176 pages. It’s categorized as Literary Fiction but I’d argue this counts as Poetry. The prose is beautiful but can feel hectic and inaccessible. Translated from the French Creole, “Slave Old Man” is about a slave who “maroons” from the sugar plantation and escapes into the thick of the jungle, doggedly tracked and pursued by the master’s dog. It took me nearly a month to get through this book and it’s one I expect to revisit again and again.… (more)