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Middle Passage
Middle Passage
Middle Passage
Ebook241 pages4 hours

Middle Passage

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

A twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Charles Johnson’s National Book Award-winning masterpiece—"a novel in the tradition of Billy Budd and Moby-Dick…heroic in proportion…fiction that hooks the mind" (The New York Times Book Review)—now with a new introduction from Stanley Crouch.

Rutherford Calhoun, a newly freed slave and irrepressible rogue, is lost in the underworld of 1830s New Orleans. Desperate to escape the city’s unscrupulous bill collectors and the pawing hands of a schoolteacher hellbent on marrying him, he jumps aboard the Republic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins a voyage of metaphysical horror and human atrocity, a journey which challenges our notions of freedom, fate and how we live together. Peopled with vivid and unforgettable characters, nimble in its interplay of comedy and serious ideas, this dazzling modern classic is a perfect blend of the picaresque tale, historical romance, sea yarn, slave narrative and philosophical allegory.

Now with a new introduction from renowned writer and critic Stanley Crouch, this twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Middle Passage celebrates a cornerstone of the American canon and the masterwork of one of its most important writers. "Long after we’d stopped believe in the great American novel, along comes a spellbinding adventure story that may be just that" (Chicago Tribune).
LanguageEnglish
PublisherScribner
Release dateFeb 21, 2012
ISBN9781439125038
Author

Charles Johnson

Charles Johnson's real identity is unknown, but his writing shows a knowledge of the sailor's speech and life, which suggests that he could have been a sea captain. He may also have been a professional writer well versed in the ways of the sea; some have suggested that he might have been the author Daniel Defoe.

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Reviews for Middle Passage

Rating: 3.7842104126315785 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing! Pirate adventure + slave narrative + elder god straight out of Lovecraft shows up and breaks shit. Hells yeah!!! I stuff this book in every high school student's face who comes into my classroom and asks for something to read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Middle Passage by Charles Johnson won the 1990 National Book Award. I was reluctant to read it because I thought it was going to be too depressing and preachy. It was depressing at times, but it was also, well . . . goofy. Very engrossing, even exciting, but a little haphazard. It has a ne’er-do-well hero, multiple plots, and exciting adventures -- a real sea yarn. I could not get my brain around the notion that the narrator knew about and referred to things that didn’t happen until decades after the story takes place (he mentions things like time zones and squeegees that didn’t exist in 1830, for example, not to mention philosophical and scientific theories that didn’t develop until much later, such as evolution). But once I decided to let that all flow over me, I enjoyed the book. It certainly packs a lot into its 206 pages.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This slim novel started off decently, but quickly headed downhill; I'm surprised that it won the National Book Award. The story is told via ship log entries by Rutherford Calhoun, a freed slave and thief in early 19th century New Orleans. To escape those he is indebted to as well as a marriage he is being forced into, he sneaks aboard an outbound ship. He quickly learns that the ship is a slaver headed for Africa, led by midget captain, Falcon. After leaving Africa with 40 slaves, treasure, and an African "god," the ship suffers many hardships, including mutiny, slave takeover, bad weather, illness, cannibalism, and mystical mumbo jumbo brought on by the "god." The writing has serious flaws: improbable coincidences, events and characters and terrible historical research (events are referenced that occurred AFTER the time period of the novel). The tone of the journal entries did not appear to come from a roguish former slave, even an educated one, more like that of a modern day professor's memoir. Maybe the novel is intended as a parody, and I'm completely missing the point, but I can't find evidence to support that assumption. I can't recommend this.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A beautiful tale written by a gifted author.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A story of a ship that leaves New Orleans for the west coast of Africa to pick up a load of kidnapped Allmuseiri who've been stolen to sell for slaves. It's told from the viewpoint of a man who stows away on the ship to escape marriage. A death-dealing storm on the way back home changes the plans or the rich men who commissioned the voyage. Vivid imagery.
    I'm left with questions about what happened to the god on board?

Book preview

Middle Passage - Charles Johnson

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