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Posted on Monday, February 24, 2020
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the newest book from Man Booker Prize-winning writer Marlon James, is a fantasy novel with a difference. The book draws on African folklore, so rather than the typical European ogres and elves and trolls, the work features creatures like the impundulu (or lighting bird), the vampire-like Sasabonsam, and the fantastically deformed children know as “mingi.” James joked that he wanted to write an African Game of Thrones and it certainly meets that standard in terms of violence and explicit sexuality. The writing is beautiful but dense and quirky and this combined with a narrative that jumps around in time makes for a disorienting and uncomfortable read at first. After a hundred pages or so the story wormed its way into my head.
The story is largely narrated in fragments and flashbacks by a man known as “Tracker” who is under investigation for the murder of an unnamed child. Years ago, Tracker was part of a group hired to find the boy who had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. The members of the group, who come and go as the quest progresses, include a shape-shifting Leopard (Tracker’s former lover), a giant, an intelligent buffalo and Tracker’s future lover Mossi, a perfect soldier who “smells of myrrh.” As in any good quest story a number of wicked characters and monsters are also searching for the boy and will do anything to stop Tracker’s group from finding him first.
In the group’s search they travel through lush and hypnotic jungles, visit a vertical city where houses are built on top of each other, battle evil white scientists in the tree city of Dolingo, and are enchanted for a month in the mysterious and dangerous Darklands. As they travel, they hear (or tell each other) a number of stories about who the boy is and the circumstances of his disappearance with each contradicting the other. In the end, Tracker has to question the very nature of truth and deceit.
Reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads demonstrate that this is not a book that everyone will enjoy, but if you have the patience (and the stomach) for it, you will likely find it a rewarding read.
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