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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 13 March 2019
'Black Leopard, Red Wolf' is epic

tale by Marlon James

By JONATHAN ELDERFIELD many places, I'd say even the next adventure. Sadly,
Associated Press epic. However, there were that was not the case for
"Black Leopard, Red Wolf" times when I wanted to put me here. Several times dur-
(Riverhead Books), by Mar- the book down and not re- ing the final 80 pages, I put
lon James turn, most often in the first the book down, afraid I
"Black Leopard, Red Wolf" section of the novel and wouldn't pick it up again.
by Marlon James is a ser- in the final one. At the be- The best writing, I found,
pentine, epic tale set in ginning, I truly had trouble was when James was at his
a fantastic realm of evil keeping the characters most direct.
monsters and villains and and sequence of events My favorite lines, "I lived
flawed heroes. At its center clear in my mind. In the fi- in town, which was a new
is a quest for a boy, a child nal part, I almost lost heart thing for me. I have always
whom we know is dead and could not finish. The been an edge man, al-
from the first line of the nov- story felt like it was taking ways on the coast, always
el. the Rashomon effect to the by the boundary. That way
James, who won the 2015 nth degree and was retell- nobody knows if I have
Man Booker Prize for his ing the same battles and just come or was turning
novel "A Brief History of Sev- histories over and again. to leave" tells me about
en Killings," a fictionalization In the best fantasy series Tracker in a way that 100
of the 1976 attempted mur- ("Black Leopard, Red Wolf" killings and a multitude of
der of Bob Marley and be- is to be the first installment foes did not. Tracker is nev-
yond, brings his storytelling of James' Dark Star Trilogy), er settled, always moving, This book cover image released by Riverhead Books shows
acumen to territory more the reader wants to fin- always keeping others off- "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by by Marlon James.
commonly associated with ish the tale and get on to balance. q Associated Press
Tolkien and George R.R.
Martin.
The hero, if you can call him
that, of this Homeric odys-
sey, is Tracker, one of a col-
lection of characters en-
gaged to find the missing
boy. Tracker possesses the
nose of a bloodhound or
a wolf, but an otherworldly
one, capable of hunting
down the boy, many days
missing and many miles
away. The boy is a mystery,
perhaps the key to the lin-
eage of kings, wanted by
several competing fac-
tions.
The story owes a debt to
Homer, with a plot that
curves and bends and de-
fies a linear path, the ulti-
mate outcome revealed
in the opening lines. The
story is as much about the
storytelling as it is about
the tale itself. As with any
monumental fantasy saga,
"Black Leopard, Red Wolf"
hits the required notes —
kings, queens and witches,
fabulously evocative lo-
cales, deceptions and be-
trayal and more evil mon-
sters than I could count.
There were flesh-eaters
and bloodsuckers, and a
creature with a new favor-
ite name, Omoluzu or Roof
Walkers. Though I confess
to immediately thinking of
Lionel Richie's song "Danc-
ing on the Ceiling."
The storytelling is ambi-
tious and enjoyable, and in