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The Marvelous Adventures of Pierre Baptiste: Father and Mother, First and Last
The first-person narrative of a savant slave, Patricia Eakins's The Marvelous Adventures of Pierre Baptiste is one of the most imaginative novels in many years. From the opening pages, the reader is swept up by the linguistic fireworks of Eakins's autodidactic protagonist as he recounts "the tribulations of bondage in the sugar isles," his escape and how he was marooned, and his subsequent trials and adventures. Making expert use of historical convention and with an ear for rhetorical authenticity, Eakins has given us a compelling novel that bridges not only human cultures but the chasm between human and animal.
Here then is the account of the life and times of an African man of letters "whose ambitions were realized in strange and unexpected ways, yet who made peace with several gods and established a realm of equality & freedom & bounty in which no creature lives from another's labor." Pierre Baptiste emerges as an embodiment of all that is lost in a racist culture.
Here then is the account of the life and times of an African man of letters "whose ambitions were realized in strange and unexpected ways, yet who made peace with several gods and established a realm of equality & freedom & bounty in which no creature lives from another's labor." Pierre Baptiste emerges as an embodiment of all that is lost in a racist culture.
- GenresFiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 15, 2019
“For, after much reflection, he does not hold with the Christians, that all that may be, already is. Rather he submits, all that may be is not yet born.”
Although not exactly picaresque, as the title had me believe, Patricia Eakins’ picturesque novel, The Marvelous Adventures of Pierre Baptiste is, well, MARVELOUS. The author has exercised her imaginative POWERS to the fullest in order to animate the soul of a 18th century African slave kept on a French isle, as well as the hope and horror surrounding his condition and that of his BRETHREN. But Pierre Baptiste is no ordinary slave, or person, for that matter. He is a self-proclaimed SAVANT whose master gave him permission as a youngling to learn, and so he goes from ABCs to becoming a man of letters, as it were.
There are a handful of moments of MAGICAL REALISM, including the appearance of a giant serpent, Pierre’s oral pregnancy which results in PHILOSO-FISH SAVANTS, and the mythic rituals of his mutilated wife.
Black and white, shadow and light, CHIAROSCURO, the dynamic plays a role in this tale and perhaps the theme can be summed up by this passage, which describes how Pierre’s master, when drawing the flora and fauna of the isle, does not employ shade (even though he employs shades, as it were, people of a darker hue than him who barely exist in his eyes): “Yet in the works of M'sieu, Creation is suffused in a pure, bright, even light, as if all creatures were caught in the terrible stillness before the palsy strikes, the storm breaks, the lava flows, caught in this moment as in Eternity, not the eternity of Paradise, earned by the good, but a terrible stasis, the paralysis of Sun's merciless glare. Ah, what be any man but damned who casts no shadow? Shadow, shadow, the dark blot of being, stain of the blood waters, deep and heavy and old, mark of suffering, God's fiery tears, trail of ashes drenching our bones. He who casts no shadow, is he not unquiet in quiet forever, dead in life and live in death?”
Pierre’s goal is to write a SHADOW HISTOIRE of cyclopedish proportions, an historical & philosophical masterwork that will tell the story of his life and the lives of his people, including their culture and mythology, everything that has been misconstrued or utterly ignored/forgotten by white history (once again, we have light without shadow, and thus stasis). A circumstance arises that forces Pierre to flee the isle in a cask, which nearly becomes his casket, but ultimately becomes his WOODEN WOMB, birthing him in an unexpected place, but a place where he can still find FREEDOM both physical and mental. This is the place where he lives for most of, if not all, his remaining years, as both father & mother. As the novel demonstrates, literally and metaphorically, to have one’s shadow shrink means eventual death, and there can be a freedom in that too.
Although not exactly picaresque, as the title had me believe, Patricia Eakins’ picturesque novel, The Marvelous Adventures of Pierre Baptiste is, well, MARVELOUS. The author has exercised her imaginative POWERS to the fullest in order to animate the soul of a 18th century African slave kept on a French isle, as well as the hope and horror surrounding his condition and that of his BRETHREN. But Pierre Baptiste is no ordinary slave, or person, for that matter. He is a self-proclaimed SAVANT whose master gave him permission as a youngling to learn, and so he goes from ABCs to becoming a man of letters, as it were.
There are a handful of moments of MAGICAL REALISM, including the appearance of a giant serpent, Pierre’s oral pregnancy which results in PHILOSO-FISH SAVANTS, and the mythic rituals of his mutilated wife.
Black and white, shadow and light, CHIAROSCURO, the dynamic plays a role in this tale and perhaps the theme can be summed up by this passage, which describes how Pierre’s master, when drawing the flora and fauna of the isle, does not employ shade (even though he employs shades, as it were, people of a darker hue than him who barely exist in his eyes): “Yet in the works of M'sieu, Creation is suffused in a pure, bright, even light, as if all creatures were caught in the terrible stillness before the palsy strikes, the storm breaks, the lava flows, caught in this moment as in Eternity, not the eternity of Paradise, earned by the good, but a terrible stasis, the paralysis of Sun's merciless glare. Ah, what be any man but damned who casts no shadow? Shadow, shadow, the dark blot of being, stain of the blood waters, deep and heavy and old, mark of suffering, God's fiery tears, trail of ashes drenching our bones. He who casts no shadow, is he not unquiet in quiet forever, dead in life and live in death?”
Pierre’s goal is to write a SHADOW HISTOIRE of cyclopedish proportions, an historical & philosophical masterwork that will tell the story of his life and the lives of his people, including their culture and mythology, everything that has been misconstrued or utterly ignored/forgotten by white history (once again, we have light without shadow, and thus stasis). A circumstance arises that forces Pierre to flee the isle in a cask, which nearly becomes his casket, but ultimately becomes his WOODEN WOMB, birthing him in an unexpected place, but a place where he can still find FREEDOM both physical and mental. This is the place where he lives for most of, if not all, his remaining years, as both father & mother. As the novel demonstrates, literally and metaphorically, to have one’s shadow shrink means eventual death, and there can be a freedom in that too.
August 10, 2022
In which Eakins is proven to be firmly part of that singular NYC later-post-modern classicist-fantasist arc that includes the brilliant Wendy Walker and Tom La Farge. A little bit overextended by digressive stories that don't completely hold up the central arc, but it follows a singular trajectory through west African-by-way-of-West-Indies folklore, histories of Caribbean revolt, and utopian fantasy.
May 6, 2020
Well, I read this. Eakins is obviously extremely talented, but this didn't do it for me the way The Hungry Girls did. A lot of it was just meandering to little effect, and I thought it was kind of lame when it incorporated stories from the aforementioned collection (it's overtly spun off from the one story, but it includes others)--they all work much better as standalones.
September 20, 2011
Like all Patricia's stories, this one should be read out loud--preferably by Patricia herself. It's especially amazing to realize it was written by a white woman in the 20th century.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews