The Palm-wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-wine Tapster in the Dead's Town | 
panWhen the un-named narrator's palm-wine tapster falls from a tree and dies, the narrator travels through a mythological landscape to find him in the Dead's Town and bring him back.
Noteworthy as the first English-language novel written by an African and published outside Africa rather than for its intrinsic interest. A Pan seems overly harsh but it just wasn't for me.
pickI want to give some examples of the parade of vaguely human creatures that the title character meets on his quixotic quest, but I would feel like I'm spoiling them. Part of the fun is that you have no idea what bizarre nightmares are waiting offstage. Written in the style of an African folk tale, it has an ancient feel, even though many elements are like contemporary fantasy. A perfect book if you're jaded: short, weird, memorable, and well-told.
Does anyone else get curious about the life of used books before they reach you? I just peeled off the price tag of my current read and found this one traveled quite a distance.
pickThe full title of Tutuola's first book gives a better impression of what lies within: "The Palm-Wine Drinkard and his Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town". I found this book more fantastic, less horrific than his next novel, "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", which takes the macabre elements a notch higher in intensity.
This book is dense despite its short length, and reads like a Jungian case study of primal archetypes. I just loved it!
I loved reading Tutuola's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" last year, so here I am starting his first novel, "The Palm-Wine Drinkard". Only 12 pages in and it's already rather disorienting: Tutuola's style is powerful and intensely ideosyncratic.
Today's reading experience is enhanced by the happy discovery that I'm 400kcals below my daily intake and that a martini is only 200kcals! Don't mind if I do ???
I found a 1953 edition! I adore the patina on the pages of old paperbacks. 😍
Finished my #LitsyAtoZ challenge! Here are M-R @bookishmarginalia
pickI really got into this short novel that Tutuola wrote to keep young Nigerians (circa 1950) interested in Yoruba culture. It's so amazing that, in all the ways we try and create differences between cultures, our folktales rely on the same magic and tricksters and great feats no matter where on Earth.
