'Feeding the Ghosts' by Fred D'Aguiar

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

What you are about to read is a review which reveals what a terribly unsophisticated reader I am.

'Feed the Ghosts' is a novel about the African slave trade. It's based on the Zong Massacre in 1781, where a greedy captain threw 132 slaves overboard to drown, hoping to pocket the insurance money. The insurers appealed and the matter went to court. Although it didn't result in a change in the law, it is generally remembered as one of the big cases which changed British attitudes towards the slave trade.

I wanted to like this book. I suspect that a lot of people who are not me will like this book, but it failed to engage with me at all. The biggest issue I had with this was the style of the writing. Fred D'Auguiar writes prose as if he wants to be writing poetry, but didn't want to have to limit himself to a poem's length. Every chapter is filled with elegaic prose on the nature of water, the meaning of the sea, on the whorls in the wood of the ship. And that was where I began to struggle. I felt as if about 50% of each page could be skipped, and you'd not miss anything. In fact, in some places I did skip pages at a time, just to move on pass the detailed descriptions of Mintah, the lead character, gazing at the sky, and try and move onward to the plot.

This is, I think, a lack in me and not in the book, perhaps. I'm aware that I tend to have limited patience with what I call 'floof' - an excess of words and descriptions that aren't necessary. This book was full of floof. For some people, that might be a good thing - it's pretty floof. It's very atmospheric and captures the feel of a fever dream very well. It's just very much the dominant part of the book.

Underneath it all is the plot, and honestly, parts of this plot bothered me. I felt as if there were holes and gaps which were being covered up by the language. Mintah felt a little too remarkable to me - she speaks English, can read and write, and has the strength to pull herself out of the sea and climb up a rope back on board ship and inspire the slaves. She's a good character, but seems to be entirely lacking any kind of character flaw or weakness. I also felt strangely sad that the events of the court case were changed so radically. In reality, the insurer's won their appeal, the captain was found to have mismanaged the voyage, and it lead to a great change in opinion. In this book, I think it is suggested that the insurer's lose, and that section ends with Simon, the Cook's Assistant, running away from his former shipmates who blame him to trying to testify against them, and feeling as if he has failed entirely.

I also thought it was a shame that Olaudah Equiano and Granville Sharp who were the men who pushed and publicized the case, and tried to get the Captain brought up on charges of murder, were entirely removed from the story. I understand removing Granville Sharp maybe - the story wasn't meant to be about heroic White Abolitionists - but Olaudah Equiano was a Black Briton, an African who had once been a slave - and strikes me as a very very interesting man and one who would have added to the story hugely.

Finally, I found the ending depressing. It lacked any kind of closure. The love story between Mintah and Simon dribbles out - they fall in love on the slave ship, but are never able to see each other again. The crew of the ship fade out after the court case, and the implication is that they just go on. The novel does end with the end of slavery in Jamaica, but points out that in America at that point, slavery is still legal.

I understand that with real life atrocities there often are no neat endings, and I think that's why I say that this review is an admission of my lack of sophistication as a reader. I wouldn't go quite as far as to say 'I want a happy ending', but I think I do want some kind of ending - some kind of closure - and I was left feeling that 'Feeding the Ghosts' didn't give that to me.

It's not a bad book. It's a book which didn't work for me - I think I'm too anal about my history and too vanilla in my literary tastes. I wanted either a really tightly put together account of a historical event, or a far looser account which would give me characters I could relate to and a story which could take me on a more rewarding journey. And 'Feeding the Ghosts' didn't give either to me.

Comments

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

I think Fred d'Aguiar is primarily a poet -- I did a write-up of his narrative poem Bill of Rights (http://community.livejournal.com/50books_poc/44062.html) for the comm. Novels written by poets are often a bit... mmm... dense? style-heavy? imagistic? What you said, anyway. And if you like wallowing in gorgeous prose, that's fine, but even if you do, you can find yourself saying "yes, but what about the plot?"

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I imagine he'd write really quite good poetry, and I would very happily read that. I think it's just a bit dense to fill up an entire book. Bill of Rights sounds interesting, and very similar to 'Feeding the Ghosts' in some ways - a survivor of a massacre. It seems to be a theme that Fred D'Auguiar is interested in.

[rosina-alcona.livejournal.com]

thanks for this - I am allergic to 'floof'! I have no poetry in my soul, clearly :)