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mattmatros 's review for:
Pym
by Mat Johnson
(Minor SPOILERS throughout)
A very funny book, especially when the characters aren't getting tortured or otherwise subjected to ruin. The racial allegory is interesting as well, although perhaps a bit too on the nose. Big white monsters attacking a contingent of black explorers who crossed an ocean to arrive at a new land doesn't exactly have the nuance of, say, Colson Whitehead's elevator inspectors. But that lack of nuance is, of course, part of the point. Where better to lay bear the little reassurances white America tells itself to feel better about its sinful past than on the bleak uninhabitable landscape of Antarctica?
The story is told in a picaresque (read: scattershot) style, which makes it hard to latch on to any of the characters or plot elements. Incomplete characterization is always a disappointment, but here it is only a minor one, as the punchy prose and the constant humor keeps this novel readable throughout. A definite recommend to anyone looking for something funny, but not at all light.
A very funny book, especially when the characters aren't getting tortured or otherwise subjected to ruin. The racial allegory is interesting as well, although perhaps a bit too on the nose. Big white monsters attacking a contingent of black explorers who crossed an ocean to arrive at a new land doesn't exactly have the nuance of, say, Colson Whitehead's elevator inspectors. But that lack of nuance is, of course, part of the point. Where better to lay bear the little reassurances white America tells itself to feel better about its sinful past than on the bleak uninhabitable landscape of Antarctica?
The story is told in a picaresque (read: scattershot) style, which makes it hard to latch on to any of the characters or plot elements. Incomplete characterization is always a disappointment, but here it is only a minor one, as the punchy prose and the constant humor keeps this novel readable throughout. A definite recommend to anyone looking for something funny, but not at all light.