The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos TutuolaRead about another entry on the list.
Amos Tutuola lays out his plot simply in the first three pages: his hero’s palm wine tapper has fallen to his death. Finding no replacement to supply his beverage, our hero determines to pop over to the land of the dead to fetch his tapper back. It is a testimony to the art of the storyteller that the reader does not toss down the book at this point, for The Palm Wine Drinkard drips charm, even in its 66th year of publication. The narrator’s colorful voice lends felicity to the tale. The supernatural powers of the characters are deployed dreamily. The novelist strings a quilt of tall tales in an idiosyncratic language that serves its subject matter well, and the reader never gets enough.
The Palm-Wine Drinkard is among Matthew Kressel's five favorite fantasy novels with fantastic, awe-inspiring settings and Alain Mabanckou's six favorite books.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
