Reviews

Sister X and the Victims of Foul Play ... by Carlene Hatcher Polite

jimmylorunning's review against another edition

3.0

Sister X lived a short while around here, a longer while down there, born there, in fact. Black Bottom. She hung out around in and out of next to here, then back to over there, across the hall, upstairs, downstairs, next door, up the street, in the next block, everywhere. But ... these days, she ain't doin' all that movin' through no more. Nope, no more o' none o' that: Time & Space Business. She is in the Nothingnesswhere, because she is deadin' it instead.

Equal parts racial-feminist-anti-capitalist tract, jive talking poetry, and just plain ol' wordplay-for-the-fun-of-it, this novel manages to be interesting throughout while having an almost nonexistent plot. The language is constantly inventive and playful, always approaching the storytelling from different angles&forms: poetry, play, epistolary, etc. At one (mid-)point Carlene Hatcher Polite (CHP) stops the non-action to give us an advertisement for WINNING SMILE BRAND TOOTHPASTE (contains M3S2, which we later find out stands for Masters/Money/Merchandise/Slaves/Spectacles). This text is obviously shot through with fury (rightly so), but it is also fun... and somehow teeters just this (non-)side of "preachy" (though it gets quite close to that "line").

She is in the Nothingnesswhere, because she is deadin' it instead. Straight out there beneath the outskirts of the dragging-hem and haute-couture whores, whom the dirt of Paris cultivates as resistant wildflowers in need of some fresh francs. A Candle for the Weed of Misfortune. Survive, Sisters, vendors of some nice warm body. Anoint yourselves with Un-Crossing (X) Oil. Un-Crossed (X) = 1 + 1. Parallels and equal signs, ad infinitum... Stop! Don't go anothuh fu'thuh. Dead Center. Now, turn left heartward-like. A drop of the Body and down we go.

Unfortunately, it feels as if the main story is just a skeleton for the two characters Sister Abyssinia and Black Will to hang their respective treatises. At 145 pages, it ends just when it was getting started, I mean the story-part. We finally learn about Sister X's demise, or the "how" of it, and no sooner than that it is mysteriously over. With this much set up, I wanted more, which is itself a sign of quality perhaps (leave them wanting more, etc.?), but also I can't help but feel that there were some missed opportunities as well. For example, a deeper investigation into her death could have been fertile ground for a more in-depth look at the injustices surrounding her character, based on Sister X's life&death rather than just the characters Declaring It So (however creatively).

Nevertheless, if you can find this buried little gem in a university library or somewhere similar, it is definitely worth a read.