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abaugher's review against another edition
5.0
Surrealistic novel about a slave's escape. Amazing imagery, intense and profoundn a very personal, individual experience of a monumental effort toward freedom.
bookiss's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
gottarun31's review against another edition
5.0
Have been eying this book for almost a year now. I'd recommend this book to everyone for the sole reason that slavery is an important topic that seems like a distant memory and I think Patrick Chamoiseau brings a humanity and reality to the slave old man- not by describing his life as a slave, but telling the story of when he hit his breaking point- when he caught the fever. The despair, the fear, the shear human will, the internal chaos, the battle between him and the mastiff. And I was reminded of the life this man never lived because of slavery.
While I love the story and how culturally wonderful it is, I had to reread parts because it was so descriptive and I couldn't remember what Chamoiseau was talking about. This read as if being told by a storyteller, although at some point it switched into first person. The description was important to the mood and the mystique that surrounds the legend of the slave old man. I just sometimes couldn't stay focused.
While I love the story and how culturally wonderful it is, I had to reread parts because it was so descriptive and I couldn't remember what Chamoiseau was talking about. This read as if being told by a storyteller, although at some point it switched into first person. The description was important to the mood and the mystique that surrounds the legend of the slave old man. I just sometimes couldn't stay focused.
annetjeberg's review against another edition
3.0
The translator of this book deserves an award. I am not sure if anyone would have done a better job translating the Creole and French in a similar way, which made reading it like a full immersion into the world of Slave Old Man. Did I love it? Nahh, not really, but I enjoyed reading it. The language. The atmosphere!
pearloz's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 for me. Astonishing writing, full of depth and perception, it is a short book in pages, short in plot, but long in description, observation; I think the one issue I had was that the book had an almost lack of personality: it had the coldness of a neutral observer even when the POV switched to first person! It read like the events were occurring at a remove from the SOM and his language.
The writing was stunning despite its academic veneer (I coulda used footnotes rather than endnotes honestly) and I am looking forward to reading more from this author.
The writing was stunning despite its academic veneer (I coulda used footnotes rather than endnotes honestly) and I am looking forward to reading more from this author.
karenreads1000s's review against another edition
3.0
This book was difficult to read due to the inclusion of so many foreign words in the translation. The journey though was very symbolic. "We are all the Earth".
emilybryk's review against another edition
3.0
I very much wish I could read this in French. I liked it well enough in English, but I feel like I missed out. This is a book where one might benefit from subtleties of language and I don't know if I caught everything that went on.
logbook's review against another edition
5.0
Slave Old Man not only blends languages and incorporates multilingual elements to illustrate colonialization, but to demonstrate the power of semantic shifts and creolization. Through these semasiological and etymological tools, Chamoiseau rejects linguistic terrorism and creates a masterpiece. However, my rating does not consider any of this; rather, Slave Old Man has the most arresting prose in a fictional piece I have read in years. For this reason alone, it was nearly impossible to put the book down. [And, now, I am in the search for the English edition of Ecrire en pays dominé (Writing in a dominated land), which sets out the theory to Chamoiseau's praxis in this book.]
Note: I received an ARC of the English edition, and would recommend buying a physical copy of this book, rather than a Kindle eBook. There are a lot of footnotes for the translations, which do not have hyperlinks, so it was a clusterf*ck to flip back and forth electronically.
Note: I received an ARC of the English edition, and would recommend buying a physical copy of this book, rather than a Kindle eBook. There are a lot of footnotes for the translations, which do not have hyperlinks, so it was a clusterf*ck to flip back and forth electronically.
jhaydel's review against another edition
This was one of the more challenging books I’ve read in years, largely because it was my first encounter with Creolite literature. I’m going to read Glissant and learn more about Creolite literature and political theory and then re-read this book so that I can appreciate it more fully. If you are new to this as well, it’s worth reading the translator’s afterword before starting the novel. I didn’t do so, but wish I had, as I started to understand more when I read the afterword.
caroparr's review against another edition
I'm not rating this because I don't think I did it justice (reading while waiting at the DMV for three hours is not conducive to appreciating lyrical prose). It would be interesting to listen to this, and if I were a better person I'd reread it.