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temegill's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
sprior's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
theaurochs's review against another edition
3.0
A book that is, for better and worse, extremely dreamlike. We get snatches of bizarre events, some extremely vivid and in focus, and others that drift by, mere glimpses of sketches. All follow a kind of dreamy logic, they are expressing something from an unconscious mind, but attempts to interpret any of it completely literally will never be quite successful. Throw aside your desire for meaning, and enjoy the psychedelic ride wherever it may take you. The worse side of this, is that it does feel distinctly like listening to someone recount their dreams. This happened, then this happened, then another thing happened; relentlessly from beat to beat without even an attempt at unifying narrative or even themes.
The Palm-Wine Drinkard is an exceedingly interesting book. It presents a collection of fables and mythology-inspired stories, spliced together into a single epic quest of a man who’s just looking to get some more wine. The poor man is presented as a bit of an idle wastrel, living only to drink his palm-wine, aided by his prodigiously brilliant palm-wine tapster. When the tapster dies and the wine stops flowing, our narrator sets out through the African bush to find the Town of the Dead and bring back his beloved tapster. What follows is the bizarre and esoteric romp through the wilderness, meeting all sorts of strange creatures and stranger people. The journey often feels like a vague excuse to tell all of these separate tales in a single volume, and I don’t think that much would have been lost if they were indeed presented as a collection of tales rather than a single narrative.
There is humour in the absurdity and the nonsequitous nature of the book, and the wild tales told therein, as well as the magnificent chapter titles and the playful use of language. Some of the sentence construction drags you along and the use of parenthesis (explanatory) lend a great crackling energy to the whole affair, garden path sentences that lead you one way then another. That said, even in such a short book these elements start to overstay their welcome. It’s great as a literary exercise, less entertaining to actual read for prolonged periods of time.
A fun and interesting book that ultimately suffers for its relentless pace and colossally disjointed narrative. The dreamlike meanderings are at once captivating and exhausting, the simplistic language clever but also at the end of the day uninspiring. There are essentially no characters to speak of- our narrator changes traits from story to story such that its hard to picture them as a single individual, and other characters come and go too quickly to be defined. There are at times frustrating lacks of detailed descriptions and at others frustratingly specific descriptions (the tree was 125ft, for example). A worthwhile read overall- just enjoy the strange happenings as they come.
The Palm-Wine Drinkard is an exceedingly interesting book. It presents a collection of fables and mythology-inspired stories, spliced together into a single epic quest of a man who’s just looking to get some more wine. The poor man is presented as a bit of an idle wastrel, living only to drink his palm-wine, aided by his prodigiously brilliant palm-wine tapster. When the tapster dies and the wine stops flowing, our narrator sets out through the African bush to find the Town of the Dead and bring back his beloved tapster. What follows is the bizarre and esoteric romp through the wilderness, meeting all sorts of strange creatures and stranger people. The journey often feels like a vague excuse to tell all of these separate tales in a single volume, and I don’t think that much would have been lost if they were indeed presented as a collection of tales rather than a single narrative.
There is humour in the absurdity and the nonsequitous nature of the book, and the wild tales told therein, as well as the magnificent chapter titles and the playful use of language. Some of the sentence construction drags you along and the use of parenthesis (explanatory) lend a great crackling energy to the whole affair, garden path sentences that lead you one way then another. That said, even in such a short book these elements start to overstay their welcome. It’s great as a literary exercise, less entertaining to actual read for prolonged periods of time.
A fun and interesting book that ultimately suffers for its relentless pace and colossally disjointed narrative. The dreamlike meanderings are at once captivating and exhausting, the simplistic language clever but also at the end of the day uninspiring. There are essentially no characters to speak of- our narrator changes traits from story to story such that its hard to picture them as a single individual, and other characters come and go too quickly to be defined. There are at times frustrating lacks of detailed descriptions and at others frustratingly specific descriptions (the tree was 125ft, for example). A worthwhile read overall- just enjoy the strange happenings as they come.
samfah's review against another edition
2.0
I have never wanted to rewrite a book so much in my life. I’ll be honest... I was barely paying attention in the last third—and this is a 100 page book.
This would be so good as a collection of short stories/fairytales. I’m sorry but this reads like a bad diary. There’s no excitement, no tension, no pacing. But the concept is so golden that I am angry.
Also my first wish when posed with the genie-egg was for a friendly dragon which I think says too much about me.
This would be so good as a collection of short stories/fairytales. I’m sorry but this reads like a bad diary. There’s no excitement, no tension, no pacing. But the concept is so golden that I am angry.
Also my first wish when posed with the genie-egg was for a friendly dragon which I think says too much about me.
anj's review against another edition
Poor prose - interesting premise, but poorly written and not engaging enough for me to finish, unfortunately.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Death and Torture
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
d34dly_d34dly's review against another edition
5.0
Guy drinks like 225 kegs of f*cking palm wine a day, until his palm wine tapster dies and he has to set out to bring him back from the dead.
angeinspace's review against another edition
challenging
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The palm-wine drinkard fizzes with energy, humour and a touch of chaos. It’s hard to describe or label, but it has a fable like quality though I am uncertain if there is a moral point of view in the traditional sense. Loved it!
isabeldotml's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.0
The story sort of tumbles along, in an "and then this and then that and then..." kind of way, which gives it an oral storytelling vibe. I really enjoyed some of the quirks of the writing style, and the wackiness of the plot.
disniq's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
2.0
Definitely not my style. I do like that it feels like verbal storytelling, but after a while the repetition and redundant information overload was a bit much and I ended up skimming.