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blue_guitar 's review for:
The Palm-Wine Drinkard
by Amos Tutuola
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I read this for r/fantasy's 2025 Bingo - Author of Color
The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola is a bizarre, surreal, folk tale of a trickster being who goes on an epic quest to retrieve his palm wine tapster (a man who climbs palm trees and taps the sap for wine).
The unnamed protagonist travels through a series of magical and nightmarish adventures involving spirits, gods and monsters.
The book is short and a fairly quick read - but it's weird. The prose is a blend of Yoruba folklore and modern (1950s) society. There are guns and cigarettes but also magical talismans and strange spells. It's also written in this kind of broken English with odd grammatical usages that can make reading it a bit jarring. This was done intentionally and was designed to mimic the oral tradition of Tutuola's culture.
There's some comparisons to Dante and Homer but really this is something completely unique and may challenge modern readers. I don't know if I actually liked it or not. I would say it's interesting and creative but also...
This book, it was very, very strange and it (the book) was not smooth to read, because every page was carrying another spirit and another trouble which did not join together well. And the story was moving like somebody who was running inside the bush without the road because they did not know where the road was. So it is not easy to follow. If you do not have strong interest in the time of that history and the Yoruba stories which were living inside it, then reader (you) and the book will not give you enjoyment. But if you are wishing to see how the old tales were walking into English language for the first time, then you may open it.
The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola is a bizarre, surreal, folk tale of a trickster being who goes on an epic quest to retrieve his palm wine tapster (a man who climbs palm trees and taps the sap for wine).
The unnamed protagonist travels through a series of magical and nightmarish adventures involving spirits, gods and monsters.
The book is short and a fairly quick read - but it's weird. The prose is a blend of Yoruba folklore and modern (1950s) society. There are guns and cigarettes but also magical talismans and strange spells. It's also written in this kind of broken English with odd grammatical usages that can make reading it a bit jarring. This was done intentionally and was designed to mimic the oral tradition of Tutuola's culture.
There's some comparisons to Dante and Homer but really this is something completely unique and may challenge modern readers. I don't know if I actually liked it or not. I would say it's interesting and creative but also...
This book, it was very, very strange and it (the book) was not smooth to read, because every page was carrying another spirit and another trouble which did not join together well. And the story was moving like somebody who was running inside the bush without the road because they did not know where the road was. So it is not easy to follow. If you do not have strong interest in the time of that history and the Yoruba stories which were living inside it, then reader (you) and the book will not give you enjoyment. But if you are wishing to see how the old tales were walking into English language for the first time, then you may open it.