Who Killed Piet Barol?

October 17, 2016
In an ambitious tale of colonial greed set in South Africa in the first days of World War I, Mason reprises Piet Barol, the handsome, charismatic scoundrel who anchored his previous novel, History of a Pleasure Seeker. The Dutch Barol, an ersatz French vicomte and talented furniture designer living on the thinnest of margins, and his American wife, Stacey, who has secrets of her own, seek to make their fortune turning out exquisite pieces for the nouveau riche in Cape Town. Barol, assisted by the young Xhosa men Ntsina Zini and Luvo Yako, who consider Barol and the other whites the Strange Ones, treks deep into the Xhosa homeland to harvest the revered Ancestor Trees near Gwadana, Ntsina’s village. Barol’s isolation and his growing obsession with the trees take a toll on his relationship with his wife and son. Ntsina also has dreams for the future, including marriage to the beautiful young Gwandan Bela, though a confrontation between Ntsina and his witch doctor grandmother and his violent father threatens to destroy the family. With echoes of Paul Theroux’s Mosquito Coast, Mason unspools a story rich in detail and populated with deeply flawed characters whose lives intersect in the once-pristine forest that inspires acts sacred and profane. Mason handles multiple story lines with the élan of a seasoned raconteur.

November 15, 2016
The rake from Mason's preternaturally witty History of a Pleasure Seeker (2012) comes to an untimely end.There's something of a bait-and-switch inherent in this unlikely sequel in which the author seems determined to punish his primary character for the very traits that captured readers' imaginations in the first place. Our hero once more is Piet Barol, a Dutch con artist posing as a French aristocrat in Cape Town on the eve of World War I. But he's a much different man than we remember, coasting on borrowed funds and running his furniture business into the ground. He delights in his son, Arthur, but his shrill wife, an oversexed American named Stacey, is determined that Piet become a success. Though Piet is still a charismatic character, he's developed a palpable middle age melancholy. After taking a large order from a local mining magnate, Piet needs a new source for wood. He finds it near the coastal village of Gwadana in an untouched mahogany forest worshiped by the Xhosa people, and with the help of two Xhosa servants, he embarks on a complex scheme to convince the Xhosa that the forest is inhabited by a murderous creature. In the midst of this misadventure, Piet Barol ceases being the enigmatic raconteur and transforms into merely an instrument by which Mason can reflect on African culture, the sins of colonialism, and the roots of apartheid. By the time Stacey arrives in the company of a racist foreman, Frank Albemarle, Piet has very nearly gone native, and it's not long before karma catches up with him. Mason continues to earn his reputation with exquisitely crafted sentences and a dizzying knack for storytelling. But this is an unexpected, winding diversion that may catch readers by surprise. The strange, unpredictable arc of a born narcissist who turns out to have a soul after all.

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Starred review from January 1, 2017
Piet Barol, the charismatic hero of Mason's History of a Pleasure Seeker (2012), lives the good life in Cape Colony, South Africa, just before WWI. For five years, Piet and his wife successfully impersonate French aristocrats; then a poor economy catches them short. Their furniture store is failing when Piet learns about a vast forest of native mahogany. His obsession with harvesting the trees and creating high-end furniture at the expense of his social rival is the central focus of the story. Piet charms two young Xhosa men into guiding him to Gwadana (to ask the chief for trees), where his involvement with the tribal people foreshadows what is to come. The novel, piercing in its perceptions of South African history and the people whose lives were affected by the 1913 Natives Land Act, and lavishly descriptive of a country rich in culture and wildly lovely, subtly captures the reader's heart. Then breaks it. With well-drawn, compelling characterization; a frank and refreshing sensuality that permeates every aspect of life; and a range of complexity surprising for the book's short length, the novel turns the question posed by the title into a philosophical theme. Luminously reminiscent of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) and recalling the disastrous culture clash of Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible (1998).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2016

Those who admired Mason's portrait of charismatic, manipulative Piet Barol in Mason's History of a Pleasure Seeker (set for a TV series) now get to see how he has turned out. Not honorably: he's in South Africa's Cape Colony in 1914, living it up as he pretends with his wife to be the Vicomte and Vicomtesse Pierre de Barol. Piet's scheme to raise some cash requires stealing mahogany from a sacred forest belonging to the Xhosa.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2016

At the end of the Anglo-Boer War, South Africa was a gold mine for European entrepreneurs hoping to exploit the native people and virgin land. In eloquent, sensuous prose, Mason introduces two poseurs, Piet Barol, the randy hero of his novel, The History of a Pleasure Seeker, and his calculating wife, Stacey. Having lived above their means for years, the couple will lose their lucrative furniture business unless they take bold, deceptive steps. When Piet learns about a pristine mahogany forest in the north Cape, he hires Ntsini Zini, grandson of powerful Gwadanan witch doctor Notsake Zini to guide him safely through the land belonging to Ntsini's ancestors. Mason imbues the forest with life, taking readers inside the psyche of each tree, animal, or insect, as it senses the looming danger. The writing is so vivid that readers will wince with pain when Ntsini's ancestral mahogany suffers the first hatchet blow. Though Piet sincerely attempts to bridge cultural and racial barriers, his obsession and Stacey's intractable greed have devastating results. VERDICT Mason's previous novels have been long-listed for the IMPAC, Sunday Times Literary, and Lambda Literary awards. This profoundly tragic tale, in which colonialism battles tribal customs, and divisions of race and class sow distrust, should put him over the top. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/16.]--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2016

At the end of the Anglo-Boer War, South Africa was a gold mine for European entrepreneurs hoping to exploit the native people and virgin land. In eloquent, sensuous prose, Mason introduces two poseurs, Piet Barol, the randy hero of his novel, The History of a Pleasure Seeker, and his calculating wife, Stacey. Having lived above their means for years, the couple will lose their lucrative furniture business unless they take bold, deceptive steps. When Piet learns about a pristine mahogany forest in the north Cape, he hires Ntsini Zini, grandson of powerful Gwadanan witch doctor Notsake Zini to guide him safely through the land belonging to Ntsini's ancestors. Mason imbues the forest with life, taking readers inside the psyche of each tree, animal, or insect, as it senses the looming danger. The writing is so vivid that readers will wince with pain when Ntsini's ancestral mahogany suffers the first hatchet blow. Though Piet sincerely attempts to bridge cultural and racial barriers, his obsession and Stacey's intractable greed have devastating results. VERDICT Mason's previous novels have been long-listed for the IMPAC, Sunday Times Literary, and Lambda Literary awards. This profoundly tragic tale, in which colonialism battles tribal customs, and divisions of race and class sow distrust, should put him over the top. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/16.]--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.