If you read through the reviews of American readers to "Black Leopard, red wolf" on the relevant shop pages, quickly divergence falls to the consistently frenetic criticisms of the US press. This book, it is said, was bought exactly because of those enthusiastic reviews and was now extremely disappointed, especially by the language.
And indeed: Marlon James does not make prisoners there. He works explicitly, not only in terms of abundant violence - more on that later - but especially in terms of sex. The "fuck the gods," which his protagonist ejects dozens of times, is not meant at all, but rather: actual, quite explicitly described sexual intercourse, which adds another level of meaning to the book, namely one of self-empowerment.
The hero of the book is gay, some of the most important co-characters are as well, they love each other extensively, and it does not seem to matter to them what reservations they may encounter during their trip. Where same-sex sex, which is one of the most delightful facets of this book, encounters fewer reservations in the fable world of the Jamaican writer than in reality.
Jeffrey Skemp / Heyne Hardcore
With his predecessor Marlon James won the Booker Prize
The journey narrated by "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" is one whose purpose is outlined on the first few pages. The hero, only called the "Seeker", is to find a kidnapped child who could restore the original order on the throne in a kingdom in an Africa far before our time. The seeker is the right man for this task, because he is not only quick on spear and throwing ax, but has an additional talent: he can smell, even over long distances. Once he has weathered, he hardly loses a trace.
In his search he is accompanied by various comrades. A leopard, sometimes becoming a human, can be found among them, as well as a buffalo who always remains a buffalo, a moon witch, and a giant who suffers greatly from being called a giant.
Who is a friend? Who is enemy?
Equally large is the number of enemies he attacks. There are Zogbanu trolls from the Blood Marsh - as well as an Ibeji. This is a malformed twin who manages to penetrate his head when interrogated by a group of torture alchemists. He has to fight against the mercenaries of the Seven Swingers as well as against ghosts, night-demons and vampiric lightning-birds.
It is therefore a broad-based hero saga, in which plenty of blood flows: Even the seeker on his way, passing through mysterious cities, through deep forests and the various dangers, a trail of devastation draws after him. And yet he does not care about this trail, for he has children: not biological, but those to whom he leads; a group of so-called Mingi, deformed beings from his homeland, whom he once rescued from death and are now in danger again.
Price query time:
15.10.2019, 13:07 clock
No guarantee
DISPLAY
Marlon James
Black Leopard, red wolf: Dark Star 1st novel
Publishing company:
Heyne Verlag
Pages:
832
Price:
EUR 28,00
Translated by:
Stephan Kleiner
Buy from Amazon Buy from Thalia
Product information is purely editorial and independent. The so-called affiliate links above, we usually receive a commission from the dealer when buying. More information here.
Marlon James needs 800 pages to tell this story. The previous novel, the "A Brief History of Seven Murders" published just over four years ago, was similarly broad, yet we are dealing here with a different way of narrating. Where James in the Man Booker Prize-winning novel about a murder attempt on Bob Marley in 1976 told rich and multi-faceted, he now needs the place to build their own world and describe very accurately.
He uses well-known legends such as those of the Benin and Nigeria-based Yoruba religion or the ancient tribes around the Zambezi River as well as their own worlds of thought; There are also many parallels to Greek mythology. It takes a while for the reader to get in there. Even if James provides guidance, prefaces a detailed register of persons, which sometimes offers good advice, and maps all the locations neatly, one sometimes loses the knowledge of good and evil, of friend and foe. Nevertheless, one likes to stay tuned.
African "Game of Thrones"
This has on the one hand tangible action reasons: If the viewfinder fights, then smokes and stinks and crashes, come from the top down, front, back, right, left. As "African 'Game of Thrones'" the author himself once described the book - and met with this not quite serious statement apparently a nerve. Not only has the term appeared in nearly every criticism since then, George RR Martin himself blessed him.
The comparison falls short, however, because James provides his variant of the fantasy novel with all kinds of cross-references to other genres and art genres: One can read here the joy of American-style pulp-fiction novels as well as Shakespeare dramas and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. If the "New York Times" brings Marvel comics into play, she is not wrong either.
Above all, some of James' thoughts can certainly be seen as a commentary on the times, as an invitation to question traditional processes in society, as well as a treatise on the topic "Fake News": Because the story, which the seeker spreads, is not on the Reader, but addressed a prison guard. "The truth has changed when a man told the same thing twice," it once said.
It fits in well with this phrase that "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" is the beginning of a trilogy. We'll get two completely different versions of the story from him, says Marlon James. The movie rights have already been sold.