Pym

Thanks to his uncle, I was introduced to author Mat Johnson and his new novel, Pym. Pym is part mystery, part satire, part sci-fi, and all entertaining--plus with a message. In fact, this is probably one of the funniest and most creative books that has been published in decades. English professor Chris Jaynes has just lost his college teaching position. Not only does he not want to teach Black Literature (which he was hired to teach) but he also refuses to join the school's Diversity Committee. As the only black faculty member, it's difficult to have a Diversity Committee without any diversity. Jaynes is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe, and especially, Poe's only novel: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. This novel is not Poe's best work, but Jaynes is haunted by Arthur Pym's sudden and mysterious demise in Antarctica, as well as the island that he discovered, Tsalal. The inhabitants of Tsalal are so black that even their teeth are black. Jaynes purchases a manuscript written by Dirk Peters (a fictional character in Poe's novel) and now Jaynes realizes that Poe's novel is probably nonfiction. With a settlement from the college, Jaynes recruits a crew of other African Americans (led by his cousin, ship captain Booker Jaynes) to retrace the steps of Arthur Pym and also, to harvest South Pole ice into drinking water (one of the last sources of pure water). What Jaynes discovers on Antarctica is not just shocking, but may also lead him to the same demise as Arthur Pym. Booker Jaynes describes it as a "snow honky problem" but it is much worse than that. Although Pym is hysterically funny at times, Johnson makes us take a meaningful look at race. His satire and comedy hide a serious side to this story. "I like Poe, I like Melville, I like Hemingway, but what I like the most about the great literature created by the Americans of European descent is the Africanist presence within it. I like looking for myself in the whitest of pages. I like finding evidence of myself there, after being told my footprints did not exist on that sand. I think the work of the great white writers is important, but I think it's most important when it's negotiating me and my people, because I am as arrogant and selfish a reader as any other." In many respects, Johnson shows true genius. He ends Pym with a dated, diary mode--just a Poe ended his novel. One extra bonus for me as a reader is that Mat Johnson grew up in Philadelphia (as does his character, Chris Jaynes) and he refers back to Philadelphia from time to time. In fact, I was fortunate to be able to hear Johnson read Chapter 1 of Pym in Philadelphia three days ago and it was a most entertaining evening. Unfortunately for Philly, Johnson now makes his home Texas where he teaches Creative Writing at the University of Houston. But I intend to seek out his earlier works and I will depend on his uncle to keep me abreast of any future writings.

Many people have been fascinated and frustrated with Poe's only novel "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym." Several have tried to complete this enigmatic work, notably Jules Verne and best of all H P Lovecraft in his "Mountains of Madness." Now Mat Johnson takes a swing at it, but who would ever guess that his solution would be a modern day social satire along the lines of Kurt Vonnegut or Thomas Pynchon? Yet it works beautifully. PYM is part adventure story, part social commentary, part science fiction/fantasy, and mostly a hilarious comic romp. Along the way, Johnson takes a whack at everything from Little Debby snack foods to modern day materialism to the Apocalypse to brief essays on 19th century American literature to hallmark style master of light paintings. It should not work - having all this mixed together should make the novel fall apart at the seams, but Johnson's strong characters and plot development makes it work. In fact, Johnson's ability to throw together seemingly disjointed themes with a story that continuously spawns new surprises and plot twists nearly every chapter is perhaps its strongest suit. Therefore I will not go into detail about the plot. I give it four stars because I found some of the first part a little slow. Do not worry and hang in there - once the gang is off to Antarctica, things move fast and furious, and always with a razor sharp comic timing.

Mat Johnson is a brilliant, thought-provoking author who creates wonderful works of art, but this fell a little bit short of expectation. The book is a telling in reverse (of sorts) of Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, "The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket". We follow Chris Jaynes in an exploration of the story of Pym, which has long thought to be fictional but Jaynes finds to be true. The novel is a satire and social criticism of America and the idea that we're living in a post-racial world, and while it achieves that goal, the narrative that it uses as a frame is a little rickety. There are a few places where the plot is moved forward by unconvincing means: the most glaring example is Garth eating all of the food that the group was going to trade for their lives. It was a jarring moment that 'broke the dream', so to speak, and pulled me out as a reader. A novel worth reading, but falls short of Johnson's other work.

Well, this was an interesting book! Not like anything I had read before. It is refreshing to read a novel where black people are not background characters or sidekicks. Virtually all of the characters in this book are African-American and they each have their own take on what that means. The main character, Chris Jaynes, is a professor of African-American Literature at a small college when he fails to be granted tenure. The reason for this failure seems to be two fold. Firstly, he would not join the college diversity committee because he felt it was a sham and without the college's only person of color, this sham would be blatant. Secondly, he refuses to teach Afrian-Merican Literature because he has become obsessed with the only novel ever written by Edgar Allen Poe. He believes this novel has something to do with the definition of "whiteness" that lead to racism in America, or at least the current definition of it. While he is obsessed with Poe's novel, he also has great disdain for it. He seems to believe it is the worst novel ever written. for example: ""There is an afterword "Note" section to the novel, but it offers basically nothing, just more confusion than solution. For one, it tells us that Pym died, and died suddenly, having not completed the final three chapters of the book--but he somehow managed that earlier preface, supposedly written after the journey." And yet he insists on giving a lecture on the book every semester whether anyone attends or not. There are some clever and insightful phrases in the book. I'll site just a couple. "I was so depressed at the end of his rant that I let him smoke in my living room." In speaking of the location of the college he states, "We were far enough north from the Point Pleasant nuclear reactor that if it was hit, we'd survive the ratiation. Even a dirty bomb in Manhattan would be okay; the wind blew south from here. People moved here for that, and for the natural beauty." The ending is clever and ironic. I should have seen it coming but I did not. At any rate, I highly recommend this novel. Everyone should read it.

I picked this book up for something outside of my normal reading experience and was pleasantly surprised. There are detailed plot descriptions in other reviews so I won't get into that. I found that the writing was witty, well-paced, and thoughtful. The author presents a unique perspective and a cast of interesting characters. This is not the pull you in, page turning story that you can't put down. Instead, Pym offers an enjoyable journey that I was glad to have read. It's an intelligent book. Bottom line: Not for everyone, but still an excellent book.