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franklyfrank's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
reo_hi's review against another edition
3.0
The pacing of both books is kinda bad, The Palm-Wine Drinkard in particular becomes repetitive towards the end. However, I found the stories of both books to be interesting more often than not and resulted in some very bizarre and funny moments. I actually grew to like the writing style and had a good time with it.
sylviaae's review against another edition
3.0
I always have a really hard time reading old novels, so this was difficult for me. I read it for my Anthropologies of Death class. The style is completely different from anything I'm used to, which makes sense since it was translated into English.
mamimitanaka's review against another edition
4.0
Now these are something truly special - totally outside the bounds of conventional "hard writing rules" made ubiquitous by western academic curriculums, completely conscious of such a decision and completely confident in its unorthodox methods. But while Tutuola clearly knows what he's doing, his motivations don't seem to be to consciously reject the western modes to make a statement, rather these stories both have a tone of the author writing what he knows, disregarding any potential bewildered colonialist gawking and simply rolling with his culture's mythos and narratives and his own wild imagination. I would resort to my reductive comparisons as usual, something such as "like an African Ghibli film on LSD", but there's really nothing else I'm aware of that's like these - totally authentic African surrealist fantasy adventures, written less like literary works and more like oral myth, and in Tutuola's own Yoruban-English dialect where he does not mind himself with any of the rules of traditional syntax and grammar. These are not "primitive" works as racist white scholars will claim, they are deliberately crafted and exciting works of a singularly vivid imagination.
While both these short novels operate on similar wavelengths, there's enough variables within both that each distinguishes itself and enough to cement Tutuola's inimitable style as entirely his own. The narrator in 'Bush of Ghosts' is a mostly passive interlocuter, at the mercy of things he does not understand as they take him from situation to situation, much like a child [in fact Tutuola's style in this one often makes it feel properly like a child is telling you a story and the feeling of aging and growing agency is done subtly yet wonderfully in the narrative voice]. By contrast the protagonist in 'Palm-Wine' is more of an active force in seeking his goals [just give the man his damn wine], and while still beset upon by things he cannot comprehend he is himself more on the same wavelength of the supernatural beings he encounters, exemplified by how he can often go toe-to-toe with them or otherwise find some way to circumnavigate around them. So in the end both works feel like a sort of ying and yang to each other, complementarily telling two wild adventure stories working from opposite angles of the spectrum; one of seeking and one of trying to escape. The framing leads to interesting questions surrounding both narratives as well - for example, in 'Bush of Ghosts' has our protagonist been dead from the moment he separated from his brother, as a casualty in the war described in the opening, and his unknowing soul is simply traversing the beyond? And in 'Palm-Wine', what exactly is the nature of our protagonist, is he a human or truly a self-centered god as he claims in the beginning? As fantasy should, Tutuola allows his works to leave themselves open to interpretation and individual analysis.
Tutuola's varied uses of tone here are also a defining aspect of both novels, and he can flit totally seamlessly between ridiculous comedy and grotesque supernatural dread at the flick of a switch. And the storytelling and prose is so laconic and natural that it just works, because the nonchalant way every character reacts to their absurd surroundings makes it feel simply like life as it is for these people, all of which also works well within the fable framework. And it works even further in its ability to depict horror as a natural component of existence, especially in a place long ravaged by the talons of colonialism - in this mythic vision of West Africa wars, famine, slavery and exploitation still exists, and at times it seems as though both the physical reality and spiritual apparatuses that exist in this universe are stand-ins for these power structures, albeit in a way where the unique mysticism of the setting and its inhabitants are always in the foreground.
It's interesting how difficult it is to summarize what are essentially simple stories - the tale of a little boy lost in a "Spirited Away"-kind of afterlife trying to make it back home, and the story of a selfish drunkard adventuring into the world of spirits to bring back his servant - because the canvas Tutuola crafts to tell these tales is so completely its own. These tales liberate themselves from the restrictions much modern fantasy feels obliged to operate on, and the world here instead is one where magic just exists as an unquestioned elemental force, far more in line with supernaturalism as seen in traditional folklore than much modern fantasy, which is oft bogged down by its insistence on internal logic in order to justify the existence of the unreal, a choice which limits the creative tapestry of any given writer [just look at how ubiquitous the tired "hard vs. soft magic" debate is]. But Tutuola does not have any of these considerations - the fantastic instead works on its own free associative logic, a world where people can turn into animals and elements at will, where the physical worlds and spiritual worlds interlink at points that go unchallenged and are simply understood to just be, and one where existence itself is suffused with supernaturalism. Magic is magic here not in the way it is in Tolkien or Jordan terms but more in the way it exists in the Bible or the Epic of Gilgamesh - the world itself operates on myth and its own inhuman mechanics, beyond the sort of secular rationalism modern people are increasingly accustomed to.
While reading, all of this made me think - is fantasy limiting itself as a genre? A drawback of the internet and its ostensibly endless avenues of learning has been that ironically, people have become more insular in the information and ideas they are willing to consume, and with writing and media literacy this is especially apparent - many have unquestioningly internalized "how it should be done" in terms of writing a story, and the result can lead to a sort of frustrating closed-mindedness among many online creative communities. Naturally this extends to authors of fantastic fiction [especially as it is among the most popular nowadays], and I can't help but feel contemporary fantasy authors are at best limiting their styles and at worst neutering it under the pressure of ill-defined "writing rules" whose advice is typically stated as some kind of immovable fact. But fantasy is one of the few genres which has the capability of moving beyond these things sheerly by default, because the only limit of fantasy is the imagination of the author. The genre's commercialization and prevalence in popular culture has separated it from its natural strengths and commodified it, leading writers to fall back on tired western cultural tropes and cliches instead of radically transcending itself as it should always have the power to do. Tutuola's work here is an example of what fantasy can achieve when it is not restricted by this commodification and understands what it means to be fantasy - mythic, awe-inspiring, ostensibly unlimited in its scope.
And seeing as I'm primarily a writer of this type of thing, I'm especially glad to have read this volume, as I myself struggle with the genre's contemporary trappings despite consciously trying to unlearn [or at least rework] many of the rules that have been ingrained into me as an amateur author. And I think anyone who writes anything in the realms of non-realism should read these too, because they're wonderful examples of stories that work perfectly for what they are despite being completely contrary to much of what we are taught about "how" to write. But if you're just a reader and not interested in all that technical stuff, then you can also just sign up for this for the surreal, mythical, phantasmagoric adventures through West African folklore and beautifully executed tonal craziness, all told by one of the most uniquely voiced and charming storytellers you'll ever read.
"Immediately the whole Skull family heard the whistle when blew to them, they were rushing out to the place and before they could reach there, I had left their hole for the forest, but before I could travel about one hundred yards in the forest, they had rushed out from their hole to inside the forest and I was still running away with the lady. As these Skulls were chasing me about in the forest, they were rolling on the ground like large stones and also humming with terrible noise, but when I saw that they had nearly caught me or if I continued to run away like that, no doubt, they would catch me sooner, then I changed the lady to a kitten and put her inside my pocket and changed myself to a very small bird which I could describe as a "sparrow" in English language."
While both these short novels operate on similar wavelengths, there's enough variables within both that each distinguishes itself and enough to cement Tutuola's inimitable style as entirely his own. The narrator in 'Bush of Ghosts' is a mostly passive interlocuter, at the mercy of things he does not understand as they take him from situation to situation, much like a child [in fact Tutuola's style in this one often makes it feel properly like a child is telling you a story and the feeling of aging and growing agency is done subtly yet wonderfully in the narrative voice]. By contrast the protagonist in 'Palm-Wine' is more of an active force in seeking his goals [just give the man his damn wine], and while still beset upon by things he cannot comprehend he is himself more on the same wavelength of the supernatural beings he encounters, exemplified by how he can often go toe-to-toe with them or otherwise find some way to circumnavigate around them. So in the end both works feel like a sort of ying and yang to each other, complementarily telling two wild adventure stories working from opposite angles of the spectrum; one of seeking and one of trying to escape. The framing leads to interesting questions surrounding both narratives as well - for example, in 'Bush of Ghosts' has our protagonist been dead from the moment he separated from his brother, as a casualty in the war described in the opening, and his unknowing soul is simply traversing the beyond? And in 'Palm-Wine', what exactly is the nature of our protagonist, is he a human or truly a self-centered god as he claims in the beginning? As fantasy should, Tutuola allows his works to leave themselves open to interpretation and individual analysis.
Tutuola's varied uses of tone here are also a defining aspect of both novels, and he can flit totally seamlessly between ridiculous comedy and grotesque supernatural dread at the flick of a switch. And the storytelling and prose is so laconic and natural that it just works, because the nonchalant way every character reacts to their absurd surroundings makes it feel simply like life as it is for these people, all of which also works well within the fable framework. And it works even further in its ability to depict horror as a natural component of existence, especially in a place long ravaged by the talons of colonialism - in this mythic vision of West Africa wars, famine, slavery and exploitation still exists, and at times it seems as though both the physical reality and spiritual apparatuses that exist in this universe are stand-ins for these power structures, albeit in a way where the unique mysticism of the setting and its inhabitants are always in the foreground.
It's interesting how difficult it is to summarize what are essentially simple stories - the tale of a little boy lost in a "Spirited Away"-kind of afterlife trying to make it back home, and the story of a selfish drunkard adventuring into the world of spirits to bring back his servant - because the canvas Tutuola crafts to tell these tales is so completely its own. These tales liberate themselves from the restrictions much modern fantasy feels obliged to operate on, and the world here instead is one where magic just exists as an unquestioned elemental force, far more in line with supernaturalism as seen in traditional folklore than much modern fantasy, which is oft bogged down by its insistence on internal logic in order to justify the existence of the unreal, a choice which limits the creative tapestry of any given writer [just look at how ubiquitous the tired "hard vs. soft magic" debate is]. But Tutuola does not have any of these considerations - the fantastic instead works on its own free associative logic, a world where people can turn into animals and elements at will, where the physical worlds and spiritual worlds interlink at points that go unchallenged and are simply understood to just be, and one where existence itself is suffused with supernaturalism. Magic is magic here not in the way it is in Tolkien or Jordan terms but more in the way it exists in the Bible or the Epic of Gilgamesh - the world itself operates on myth and its own inhuman mechanics, beyond the sort of secular rationalism modern people are increasingly accustomed to.
While reading, all of this made me think - is fantasy limiting itself as a genre? A drawback of the internet and its ostensibly endless avenues of learning has been that ironically, people have become more insular in the information and ideas they are willing to consume, and with writing and media literacy this is especially apparent - many have unquestioningly internalized "how it should be done" in terms of writing a story, and the result can lead to a sort of frustrating closed-mindedness among many online creative communities. Naturally this extends to authors of fantastic fiction [especially as it is among the most popular nowadays], and I can't help but feel contemporary fantasy authors are at best limiting their styles and at worst neutering it under the pressure of ill-defined "writing rules" whose advice is typically stated as some kind of immovable fact. But fantasy is one of the few genres which has the capability of moving beyond these things sheerly by default, because the only limit of fantasy is the imagination of the author. The genre's commercialization and prevalence in popular culture has separated it from its natural strengths and commodified it, leading writers to fall back on tired western cultural tropes and cliches instead of radically transcending itself as it should always have the power to do. Tutuola's work here is an example of what fantasy can achieve when it is not restricted by this commodification and understands what it means to be fantasy - mythic, awe-inspiring, ostensibly unlimited in its scope.
And seeing as I'm primarily a writer of this type of thing, I'm especially glad to have read this volume, as I myself struggle with the genre's contemporary trappings despite consciously trying to unlearn [or at least rework] many of the rules that have been ingrained into me as an amateur author. And I think anyone who writes anything in the realms of non-realism should read these too, because they're wonderful examples of stories that work perfectly for what they are despite being completely contrary to much of what we are taught about "how" to write. But if you're just a reader and not interested in all that technical stuff, then you can also just sign up for this for the surreal, mythical, phantasmagoric adventures through West African folklore and beautifully executed tonal craziness, all told by one of the most uniquely voiced and charming storytellers you'll ever read.
"Immediately the whole Skull family heard the whistle when blew to them, they were rushing out to the place and before they could reach there, I had left their hole for the forest, but before I could travel about one hundred yards in the forest, they had rushed out from their hole to inside the forest and I was still running away with the lady. As these Skulls were chasing me about in the forest, they were rolling on the ground like large stones and also humming with terrible noise, but when I saw that they had nearly caught me or if I continued to run away like that, no doubt, they would catch me sooner, then I changed the lady to a kitten and put her inside my pocket and changed myself to a very small bird which I could describe as a "sparrow" in English language."
lindseyzank's review against another edition
3.0
After reading this, I feel as if I've been dragged through the African bush and my ears have been filled with African legend and tale. I'm a bit disoriented after the experience, but my understanding of African literature has certainly been enhanced.
racheladventure's review against another edition
4.0
These two stories were a great find! Savoring something like a fairytale by Brothers Grimm and a didactic morality play, but not at the same time. This form and tone seemed entirely unique, and reading the forwarded biography I second the claim that it is "perhaps fortunate that his schooling ended too early to force his story-telling into a foreign style" (10). Written in the 50's, this book was one of the first acknowledged stories to come out of West Africa.
Story telling is an art that, in my experience, seems to have been abandoned in the current Western African school systems aimed at a Western education. These tales seem to have that flavor of that oral tradition, said to be incomparable in a Western context.
I believe the most entertaining of the stories was "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." The magical realism seems very fitting to the subject, a combination of spiritual beliefs and day to day life of a traditional African. Fears of "the Bush" and the adventures our narrator goes through take us into the mind of a brilliant imagination, allowing us a taste of some of the rich nature of traditional stories.
Even though Tutuola is said to have been uncontaminated in his form and style, I did notice that there seems to be a lot of elements that compliment the mythic story. We have something like an Odyssey, a character who has strayed and has made a long journey home. Like Odysseus, the narrator stumbles upon people and places that he does not want to leave, but eventually remembers his goal to get home. There is also the recognition scene common in the mythic tradition when he first identifies his brother by the scar on his forehead.
"The Palm-wine Drunkard" was also a fun story, but in ways entirely different than "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." My interpretation of this story was of a married couple and the development of their relationship as much as an adventure story. Like in the previous story, we have a number of outrageous stories filled with danger and thrill, yet through it all we have this interesting couple relationship that we did not have before. The narrator of "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" married a couple of times, left them, and then half heatedly seemed to deny a third wife, but never really made much of it. In this story we see a development from a point when a threat comes up and each push each other to take the hit first, to giving the wife a voice. She seems to be a voice of reason, and when the narrator runs into a quarrel with a hired laborer, after failing to heed her advice, he then listened.
By the end of the story we see that things have changed in that initial relationship. When his wife is swallowed up by a hungry creature, the narrator confesses he "then I thought of my wife, who had been following me about in the bush to Dead's Town had not shrunk from any suffering, so I said that, she should not leave me like this and I would not leave her for the hungry-creature to carry away. So I followed... (287).
As far as content, because of this development in character and the relationship with his wife I think I prefer "The Palm-wine Drunkard." What can I say? I love a good love story!
Both stories end, in my opinion, very oddly though. I would love some more insight on the closing line of "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," and the last several chapters about the famine in "The Palm-wine Drunkard."
Story telling is an art that, in my experience, seems to have been abandoned in the current Western African school systems aimed at a Western education. These tales seem to have that flavor of that oral tradition, said to be incomparable in a Western context.
I believe the most entertaining of the stories was "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." The magical realism seems very fitting to the subject, a combination of spiritual beliefs and day to day life of a traditional African. Fears of "the Bush" and the adventures our narrator goes through take us into the mind of a brilliant imagination, allowing us a taste of some of the rich nature of traditional stories.
Even though Tutuola is said to have been uncontaminated in his form and style, I did notice that there seems to be a lot of elements that compliment the mythic story. We have something like an Odyssey, a character who has strayed and has made a long journey home. Like Odysseus, the narrator stumbles upon people and places that he does not want to leave, but eventually remembers his goal to get home. There is also the recognition scene common in the mythic tradition when he first identifies his brother by the scar on his forehead.
"The Palm-wine Drunkard" was also a fun story, but in ways entirely different than "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." My interpretation of this story was of a married couple and the development of their relationship as much as an adventure story. Like in the previous story, we have a number of outrageous stories filled with danger and thrill, yet through it all we have this interesting couple relationship that we did not have before. The narrator of "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" married a couple of times, left them, and then half heatedly seemed to deny a third wife, but never really made much of it. In this story we see a development from a point when a threat comes up and each push each other to take the hit first, to giving the wife a voice. She seems to be a voice of reason, and when the narrator runs into a quarrel with a hired laborer, after failing to heed her advice, he then listened.
By the end of the story we see that things have changed in that initial relationship. When his wife is swallowed up by a hungry creature, the narrator confesses he "then I thought of my wife, who had been following me about in the bush to Dead's Town had not shrunk from any suffering, so I said that, she should not leave me like this and I would not leave her for the hungry-creature to carry away. So I followed... (287).
As far as content, because of this development in character and the relationship with his wife I think I prefer "The Palm-wine Drunkard." What can I say? I love a good love story!
Both stories end, in my opinion, very oddly though. I would love some more insight on the closing line of "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," and the last several chapters about the famine in "The Palm-wine Drunkard."
synoptic_view's review against another edition
Reminiscent of the feeling of looking at the East Asian paintings that intentionally eschew linear perspective. Tutuola--especially in "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"--uses tense and grammar in a trippy and wonderful way. I would strongly recommend that everyone read at least a few pages of either of these stories.
tinydumptruck's review against another edition
3.0
Like a fast-paced Odyssey, with run on sentences - 3.5
polpofemo's review against another edition
4.0
Racconti di formazione intrisi di fantasia. Non so quanto sia dovuto al folklore nigeriano (che mi è sconosciuto) e quanto all'inventiva dell'autore, ma mi sono sentita catapultata in un mondo strano, inesplorato e allucinato. Il protagonista riesce a barcamenarsi tramite trovate ingegnose usando i suoi amuleti magici. Le creture che si incontrano sono bizzarre, spesso inquietanti, non sempre benevole e non mancano parti molto cruente. Lo stile è semplice e colloquiale, volutamente sgrammaticato a tratti; sembra di stare ascoltando un amico che racconta fiabe avventurose e non si sa quanto sia vero e quanto inventato, ma ci piace credere a tutto.
8.5/10
8.5/10
fihman's review against another edition
4.0
Weird, but mostly good weird. Is it magical realism? Absurdism? Modern fairy tale?
It’s like the flip side of Roussel’s ‘New Impressions of Africa’.
It’s like the flip side of Roussel’s ‘New Impressions of Africa’.