The Frequency of Magic
Anthony Joseph
- Raphael
- earns
- his
- living
- as
- a
- butcher
- in
- a
- hillside
- village
- in
- rural
- Trinidad.
- He
- is
- also
- a
- would-be
- author,
- but
- there
- have
- been
- so
- many
- distractions
- to
- the
- novel
- he
- has
- been
- writing
- for
- forty-one
- years
- that
- many
- of
- the
- characters
- have
- lost
- patience
- and
- gone
- off
- to
- do
- their
- own
- thing.
- But
- somehow,
- miraculously,
- the
- novel,
- as
- Raphael
- has
- planned
- it
- in
- one
- hundred
- chapters
- of
- a
- thousand
- words,
- seems
- to
- write
- itself...
Time
- in
- this
- richly
- ambitious
- and
- multi-levelled
- novel
- is
- both
- circular
- and
- simultaneous,
- but
- moving,
- as
- Raphael
- ages,
- towards
- a
- sense
- of
- dissolution
- both
- of
- persons
- and
- of
- the
- culture
- of
- the
- village.
- But
- if
- there
- is
- a
- tragic
- realism
- about
- the
- passage
- of
- time,
- there
- is
- also
- a
- constant
- aliveness
- in
- the
- novel's
- love
- affair
- with
- the
- language
- of
- Creole
- Trinidad
- with
- its
- poetic
- inventiveness
- and
- wit,
- with
- the
- improvisatory
- sounds
- of
- jazz
- and
- the
- undimmed
- urge
- of
- the
- villagers
- to
- create
- meaning
- in
- their
- lives.
- Above
- all,
- there
- is
- Raphael's
- belief
- that
- in
- the
- making
- of
- his
- fiction,
- however
- messy
- and
- disobedient
- its
- materials,
- art
- can
- both
- challenge
- the
- destructive
- passage
- of
- time
- and
- make
- us
- see
- reality afresh.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
