I am staring down Lawrence Hill's BOOK OF NEGROES on my shelf thinking: "do i really want to start reading this?" It's pretty long, 469pages. I bought it five months ago with the intention that i would read it when i get the time. I know that it is supposed to be an important book for Afro Canadian history and that its contents represent fifteen years of research and hard work; after all, i had been to Hill's presentation on the book. The trouble is, just from flipping through the pages and stopping now and again to read a paragraph here and there, i am not connecting with the narrator. Who would have thought that connecting with a narrator would be so darn important to the reader? It's weird. The voice just does not... umm, it's not engaging. I don't know, i'm imagining an old African woman but the words on the page do not seem to be coming from her mouth...
It's not that i am intimidated by the length of the book, God knows, i've had my share of big books! I can usually tell from the first four pages, because you get a feel of the tone, mood etc., if a book is going to be great. Austin Clarke's, THE POLISHED HOE, is just as "big"; the difference is that as soon as i read the first four lines from Clark's text i knew, immediately, that i would be in for a treat. Almost instantly, i could see and hear Mary-Mathilda speaking and i recognized who she was and where she was coming from. I don't know, i hate to past a judgement on THE BOOK OF NEGROES so early but i just don't feel this one. Hence, its place on my shelf, and me glancing over every now and again savouring its elegance and sheer size among my other "slim" creative texts. Hopefully, one day i will summon up enough courage to read it. I feel my conscience kicking in a bit, but nothing distresses me more than having to read a book only to find it disengaging; that's just painful. Gosh, it's painful just to write those words. Anyways, if i'm going to have any shot at being a critic, i'd better start learning that being harsh is part of the game!
It's not that i am intimidated by the length of the book, God knows, i've had my share of big books! I can usually tell from the first four pages, because you get a feel of the tone, mood etc., if a book is going to be great. Austin Clarke's, THE POLISHED HOE, is just as "big"; the difference is that as soon as i read the first four lines from Clark's text i knew, immediately, that i would be in for a treat. Almost instantly, i could see and hear Mary-Mathilda speaking and i recognized who she was and where she was coming from. I don't know, i hate to past a judgement on THE BOOK OF NEGROES so early but i just don't feel this one. Hence, its place on my shelf, and me glancing over every now and again savouring its elegance and sheer size among my other "slim" creative texts. Hopefully, one day i will summon up enough courage to read it. I feel my conscience kicking in a bit, but nothing distresses me more than having to read a book only to find it disengaging; that's just painful. Gosh, it's painful just to write those words. Anyways, if i'm going to have any shot at being a critic, i'd better start learning that being harsh is part of the game!
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2 comments:
Yes be harsh!! But also be honest. Very hard combination to get right...
A very hard combination, indeed, Ward. Honesty comes very easy for me, and i'm usually very tough on reviewing books. Perhaps it's because as i was writing this blog i kept seeing Hill and hear him talk, emotionally, about the construction of the book.
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