- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press (1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802133630
- ISBN-13: 978-0802133632
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.6 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #214,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended!,
By
This review is from: The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Paperback)
Fairy-tales? Hah! See if your kid will go to sleep after hearing one of Tutuola's mad hallucinatory (not my word) yarns. A seldom-discussed aspect of cultural anthropology is the metamorphosis of our fairy-tales--the imaginative currency of early youth which are passed on through family and social structures alike. In America, characters like witches, ghosts, and other creatures have their genesis in Europe, or can be traced even further back to ancient Indo-European cultures (of course, we have our own indigenous tales as well). These characters and stories have become so diluted over the years, that they've lost a lot of their original cultural meaning or relevance. What does this have to do with Amos Tutuola? "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" and "The Palm Wine Drinkard" are African tales in their pure unadulterated form. And they're not something you'd want to hear before bedtime! Amos Tutuola writes an English which lends the narration a wide-eyed, almost childlike voice--yet in the face of wild, horrific imagery (eg. armies of dead babies) the words are unflinching. Tutuola is not for everybody, but for the adventurous reader I could not recommend this highly enough.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts,
By Pius Mambo (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Paperback)
This debut novel by one of Africa's most celebrated authors is a compelling, and full of suspense and disbelief. I liked every chapter of it. It stretched credulity to the utmost and yet it is funny and entertaining. Other entertaining titles I enjoyed are The Usurper and Other Stories, Mango Elephants in the Sun, Triple Agent Double Cross,The old man and the medal,Nervous Conditions, Shake hands with the Devil, Disciples of Fortune
5.0 out of 5 stars
How can it even be approached?,
This review is from: The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Paperback)
What an experience. Accompanying the narrator, "Father of the gods who can do everything in this world," the reader escapes the difference between real or unreal, into where the two are the same. A book like none other i've ever come near, and i am not sure what i'd do if i did. There is no explanation, no need, just a story: creatures, trees, an alive bush, walking backward deads, menacing babies - one of which explodes from a thumb, trees within which lives "Faithful mother" who is faithful to all things - alive and dead, an egg that grants all wishes, much dancing, much music... So many things. This book is required reading for especially this, but every other, generation, for all "races" of folks, a book for which there can be no substitute. Purchase it, check out your local library, whatever, just read it. Then reread it.
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