A Comic Glimpse Into Poe's Racial Politics: Pym by Mat Johnson

Masquerading as authentic journal entries, the tale chronicles the voyages of a young seafarer, Pym, who suffers through mutiny, shipwreck and cannibalism. But, buried alive deep in Poe's icy adventure tale is the ultimate scary subject in 19th-century American literature: slavery. As interesting as the adventure is, however, it isn’t the novel’s main draw. Pym is wickedly, deliriously, acerbically funny. Enjoy the strain of ghastly humour , relentless entertainment with this title at Stelahub.

Johnson has larger themes in mind—particularly the question of who defines one’s racial identity, and who’s responsible for the idea of “whiteness”. There’s a playfulness found in Johnson’s tale. The farce has the comedy down pat, with chewy sentences heavy on the irony, and the political threads underneath it all hold strong. And as a bonus, the narrative blurs fantasy and the “reality” of the story. It’s no easy task to balance social satire against life-threatening adventure, the allegory against the gory, but Johnson’s hand is steady and his ability to play against Poe’s text masterly.

Even when the situation turns deadly serious for the characters, Johnson’s gifts of characterization and satire keep the story moving. In theory, a novel about literary history and the American construction of racial identity sounds ponderous; in practice, Pym is a joy to read, intelligent and amusing in perfectly balanced measure. Set off on this comic journey into the ultimate land of whiteness by an unlikely band of African American adventurers with Stelahub.