Tumatumari

by Wilson Harris

Hardcover in good condition, with unclipped dust jacket in acceptable condition. Jacket is marked and sunned, with damp stains and spots of foxing on the interior. Edges are creased and nicked, including a few small tears. Boards are faded, and corners and spine ends are slightly bumped and rubbed. Page block is lightly tanned and foxed. Binding is sound and pages are clear. LW

156 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Born in Guyana in 1921 and based in England since 1959, Wilson Harris is one of the most original novelists and critics of the twentieth century. His writings, which include poems, numerous essays and twenty-four novels, provide a passionate and unique defense of the notion of cross-culturalism as well as a visionary exploration of the interdependence between history, landscape and humanity. In 2010 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature.

Reviews

[Manuel Abreu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful adventure. This is part of what critics like Maes-Jelinek call Harris' "second cycle," after the Guyana Quartet and reaching its expressive zenith with Ascent to Omai (1970). But Tumatumari and others in this 2nd cycle do important groundwork in the project, weaving together the gnostic redemptive themes of the Guyana Quartet with an insistent motif of characters becoming vessels for other consciousnesses and a particular attention to the radical capacities of the creative act.

Tumatumari is a good case of the motif. A woman suffers a case of nerves, thinking she has found a head in the river. Our protagonist Prudence is dealing with immense loss (stillbirth and spousal death), and we meet her in the midst of a nervous breakdown during which she is being cared for by, as she comes to realize, her husband's mistress. She has an ecstatic and time-bending experience at a cement engineering structure near a waterfall. This experience ushers in the meat of the novel, which explores curious slippages between or yokings across Roi (her deceased husband, decapitated by a rock) and her father and sets in motion a redemptive cycle for Prudence which, while it ends somewhat tragically in rhe 'real' world, leads her to a deeper, indeed venerative understanding of herself and her community.

The capacity for change, and the overthrow of the solid and powerful, is the central theme, with the image of decapitation resonating powerfully throughout. There's also emphasis, with respect to Harris' characteristic image-sequences ("convertible images"), on the waterfall, ideas from civil engineering, and the nexus of breakdown and creative rebirth. I really enjoy the oscillation between a seeming pastiche of realism (not common for Harris) and his typical searing mysticism, and I think there's an extremely compelling overlap of ideas between this novel and his landmark 1970 essay History, Fable, and Myth in the Caribbean and Guianas. The experience of Prudence, the way her mourning sets the stage for an encounter with paternal authority, seems like an instance of limbo consciousness as articulated in the essay.

Love this book, recommended.