A quirky fantasy

KOCHI: The catchphrase of Jamaican writer Marlon James’ latest offering is that it’s an African Game of Thrones. The comparison came from the author himself, who since has said it was said as a joke. It is kind of true, in the sense the book is a lush epic fantasy, gruesome with violence and explicit sex. 

James weaves a story that’s a maze surrounded by mazes. If that makes sense. The one thing that reader knows from the beginning is “The child is dead. There is nothing left to know”. However, what comes after this initial proclamation is a whimsical grand tale that frustrates the leader. Tracker is telling his life story to his captor, his quest for finding the child (who goes nameless in the book), who, for some reason, is connected to the fate of the kingdom. Meanwhile, we are all at the mercy of Tracker — who’s the boy? How did he die? He takes his sweet time to tell his side of the story of his grand adventure. 

Tracker, who earns the adjective “something of a nose” can smell any missing man, even the dead. Somewhere in the book, he loses an eye and starts wearing a wolf’s eye that helps him see in the dark. He always prefers to work alone, but he eventually joins a group of mismatched  entities in the quest for the missing child. For years, Tracker is joined by Leopard, a shape-shifting hunter, a witch, a giant, a buffalo and many more interesting characters. 

The biggest beauty of this book is its non-linear narration and the poetic prose that never reveals anything, including the pronouns of the characters Tracker meets on his quest. Through Tracker, James makes the reader work alongside him, to figure out the mysteries. The 600-odd pages story is filled with witches, shapeshifters, monsters, ogres, smoke childs, fish people, bush fairies, mad apes, and beasts of all kind that sprouts spontaneously on each page. It’s a queer book, by a gay writer, filled with many sexualities and genders.