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A review by speculativebecky
The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
5.0
Built on Yoruba folktales and oral traditions, these stories don’t really read like “fantasy” but I agree with an argument that sees traditional stories as influential early fantasy precursors, although worth noting that they are stories that represent real supernatural beliefs in a way that modern “fantasy” mostly does not.
The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead’s Town follows the first person account of a man who sets out on a quest through mortal and spiritual realms to find his deceased palm-wine tapster. He calls himself “Father of gods who could do everything in the world,” and he’s tested by those he meets on his journey to live up to this name. He must outwit those who seek to harm him, and perform various tasks set forth by those who he hopes will give him information about his tapster’s location in return. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a similarly wild adventurous story, another first person narration about a young boy who is driven into the Bush of Ghosts and spends many years being captured by various ghosts and traveling between ghost towns unable to find his way out. Each ghost and town is different and he struggles to navigate an ever-changing set of unknown new rules.
These whimsical, never-straightforward stories captivated and entertained me. I marveled, I laughed, I turned another page and now I can’t stop thinking about these two adventures, their many strange settings and characters, and Tutuola’s distinctive voice. Honestly, what a treasure.
The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead’s Town follows the first person account of a man who sets out on a quest through mortal and spiritual realms to find his deceased palm-wine tapster. He calls himself “Father of gods who could do everything in the world,” and he’s tested by those he meets on his journey to live up to this name. He must outwit those who seek to harm him, and perform various tasks set forth by those who he hopes will give him information about his tapster’s location in return. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a similarly wild adventurous story, another first person narration about a young boy who is driven into the Bush of Ghosts and spends many years being captured by various ghosts and traveling between ghost towns unable to find his way out. Each ghost and town is different and he struggles to navigate an ever-changing set of unknown new rules.
These whimsical, never-straightforward stories captivated and entertained me. I marveled, I laughed, I turned another page and now I can’t stop thinking about these two adventures, their many strange settings and characters, and Tutuola’s distinctive voice. Honestly, what a treasure.