Bibliofreakblog

Middle Passage by Charles Johnson

This book is a metaphor within a metaphor, wrapped in an enigma.  It’s not that you don’t know what’s going on, it’s just that you’ll have to follow it slowly, carefully, in order to pick up what Johnson’s laying down.

Of course, you can skip the metaphorical puzzle pieces and just go with the adventure and, as one fellow blogger put it, “goofy” fun.  If that’s your thing, that’s cool–just be sure not to let the serious nature of the book cover scare you away.

So, what’s all about then?  The scene is set in 1830’s New Orleans.  Rutherford Calhoun, our (anti?)hero is an educated freed slave.  He has three options: pay his debt to Papa, the local gangster, get pummeled by Papa’s impossibly large goon (metaphor alert: this is a black dude bred for his size, who will probably not live to old age because of it–remind you of any football players you know?), or marry Isadora, the crazy cat lady school teacher from Boston.  Really, he has only two options, since he’s broke.

So, he does what anyone in that circumstance would do.  He runs.  He sneaks aboard the ship The Republic and isn’t found until they set sail.  Johnson is in a unique position to chronicle the events aboard the ill-fated ship.  Coming back from picking up slaves in Africa (metaphor alert: Calhoun thus has no choice but to become a slaver, even if not an active slaver, by being on the ship, from which he obviously cannot escape, and in fact escaped to, in order to save his own ass), there’s three parties: 1. the captain–a real asshole, and not just for being a slaver, 2. the crew, who plan to mutiny, and 3. the slaves who also plan to mutiny and save their God, who is being held down below by the Captain, who plans to not only sell the human beings for money, but also their God (metaphor alert: do I need to explain?)

Of course, it’s not a friendly God.  And it’s going to be Calhoun’s job to feed it.  

Between that, bad weather, and a run-in with Papa and Isadora on the high seas, what’s Calhoun to do?

This is a magical realism metaphor-laced book.  It’s gonna run away with you.  You might not love it.  I can’t say that I loved it.  But I did really like it.   

And guaranteed, at the end you’ll put it down and say, “huh”.

if you like this book/author, you might like:

Moby Dick (F) by Herman Melville
Lord Jim (F) by Joseph Conrad
Sula (F) by Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon (F) by Toni Morrison
Beloved (F) by Toni Morrison
The Feast of All Saints (F) by Ann Rice
Invisible Man (F) by Ralph Ellison
The Known World (F) by Edward P. Jones
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (F) by Maryse Conde 
Corregidora (F) by Gayl Jones
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (F) by Mark Twain
The Secret Life of Bees (F) by Sue Monk Kidd 
Venus (D) by Suzan-Lori Parks  
Amistad (F) by David Pesci
The Sea Wolf (F) By Jack London

Other works by Charles Johnson:

Soulcatcher & Other Stories (F)
Faith and Good Healing (F)
Oxherding Tale (F)
King: The Photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (NF)
Dreamer (F)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (F)
Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970 (NF)