Sharyl reviewed Pym: A Novel by Mat Johnson
Review of 'Pym: A Novel' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is satire, aimed squarely at Edgar Alan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket." I enjoyed "Pym" more than Poe's novel.
I loved how Mat Johnson's lead character, Chris Jaynes, critiques Poe's novel in the beginning of this novel. Chris is a literature professor at a liberal college, where as the only African-American, he is expected to limit himself in a way he finds objectionable. Chris's refusal to play the narrow role the college is offering means the end of his career. When a rare book dealer introduces Chris to material written by Dirk Peters (a character in Poe's novel and a man of color), he is sent on a quest to research and find Tsalal, the island alluded to in Poe's chronicle.
This is a clever satire, every bit as bizarre as Poe's story, but in my opinion, more engaging. For one thing, the human characters …
This is satire, aimed squarely at Edgar Alan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket." I enjoyed "Pym" more than Poe's novel.
I loved how Mat Johnson's lead character, Chris Jaynes, critiques Poe's novel in the beginning of this novel. Chris is a literature professor at a liberal college, where as the only African-American, he is expected to limit himself in a way he finds objectionable. Chris's refusal to play the narrow role the college is offering means the end of his career. When a rare book dealer introduces Chris to material written by Dirk Peters (a character in Poe's novel and a man of color), he is sent on a quest to research and find Tsalal, the island alluded to in Poe's chronicle.
This is a clever satire, every bit as bizarre as Poe's story, but in my opinion, more engaging. For one thing, the human characters are fun. Just one warning: as with Poe's story, what happens in the end is not entirely clear. We never even find out what happened to White Folks.
I am very happy that Mat Johnson is on my radar, now.
the dog. Poe didn't let us know what happened to Tiger, either.
the dog in Poe's story.
