Slave Old Man

February 15, 2018

Along with their freedom, enslaved peoples are robbed of their names and languages, those important measures of identity. But their memories can never be taken from them. In an homage to the colonized races of his native Martinique, Prix Goncourt winner Chamoiseau spins a fable of a "vieux-negre," an elderly black man who has toiled on a sugar plantation for as long as anyone can remember. Now aged and silent, he is invisible to all but the enslaver's giant mastiff, a terrifying cur as cruel and dangerous as its master. Therefore, so the story goes, quite some time elapses before anyone except the dog realizes that the old man has disappeared. He has plunged into the darkness of the Great Woods, where the voices of generations who have fled and died before him encourage his every painful step to freedom. Their collective memories inhabit his subconscious mind, empowering the old man to face head-on the evil that's tracking him. VERDICT Published in France in 1997, this allegorical novella has been translated into English with extensive notes on various French and Creole phrases for ease of comprehension. It will appeal to readers drawn to slave narratives, folk tales, and the ineffable power of storytelling.--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 26, 2018
An escaped slave is hunted by a hound who “burst the bounds of utter slavering rage” in this heart-pounding novel from Chamoiseau (Texaco), Martinique’s great chronicler of the atrocity of Caribbean slavery. The old man, once believed to be the “most docile among the docile” slaves on an island plantation, slips away unnoticed, with “no ruminations, no grim glance toward the woods.” He has a head start on the plantation owner’s favored mastiff; by the time the animal that has already killed a half dozen fugitives is loosed, the old man is deep in the island’s forest, where “the leaves were many, green in infinite ways, as well as ochre, yellow, maroon, crinkled, dazzling.” The ensuing pursuit is electric and illuminating: for the old man, Chamoiseau writes, “the mastiff on his heels is showing him his own unknowns.” These insights into his mental strength show how the old man manages to persevere through a fall into a wellspring, branches that leave him “covered in bright blood and scabs,” and an encounter with a viper, en route to the book’s climactic confrontation. Chamoiseau’s prose is astounding in its beauty—and is notable for its blending of French and Creole—and he ups the stakes by making this novel a breathtaking thriller, as well.