About
Author: Pauline Melville (Guyana)
Genre: Social
Setting
Place: Guyana
Time: 1900-1990s
My Rating (see what this means)
My Subjective Rating: 4
My ‘Objective’ Rating: 3.35
Introduction
‘The Ventriloquist’s Tale’ by Pauline Melville is an odd story.
Reading the prologue – it is immediately obvious that this is going to be a dense work. The narrator introduces themselves – without really telling who they are – Are they human even? We learn they are descended from rocks in Ecuador, might be a spirit or a bird. There certainly is something to do with a parrot. Salman Rushdie, another great writer known for dense writing – calls Melville ‘one of the few genuinely original writers to emerge in recent years’. So by the time we reach the first chapter – we expect complicated great writing full of magic realism and allusions and hidden meanings.
Then the main story starts – and poof – there is no magic realism, the narrator is nowhere to be seen, and the story seems mostly straightforward – and beautifully written. The most magical bits we get are mentions of Native American myths about eclipses and incest. The story is engaging, there is enough intrigue, the characters well drawn out and the imagery sufficiently picturesque.
There might be some allusions here and there – for instance – Evelyn Waugh makes an appearance, but they were not immediately obvious to me – and didn’t take really distract much from the story.
Only in the epilogue does the narrator makes a reappearance and hints at his identity (again not immediately obvious to me) and we are left with a nagging feeling that there is a lot more to the book.
Without knowing any of these allusions – I thought it is a thoroughly readable book – with a neat enough point surrounding identity, culture and colonialism.
Reading about some of the books hidden meanings in an academic paper – I am sure I would appreciate the book a lot more when I read it again. This blog below is my attempt to list things I want to know before my next attempt.
Discussion (has spoilers)
