Book Review… Guyanese writer delivers mythological masterpiece

Jul 24, 2016 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

Book: Children of the Spider

Author: Imam Baksh

Critic: Dr Glenville Ashby

Culture is the blood of civilization that finds meaning through generational layers of myths.

Guyanese author Imam Baksh resuscitates this essential part of the human archetype with a stirring mythological and quixotic odyssey that is timeless and piercingly relevant.

Baksh is perceptive, an intuitive writer that uses symbols to convey his message. He can be literal and didactic but leans effortlessly toward a subtle, transcendental approach to story-telling. And his story is more than compelling.

Readers are introduced to a parallel world of telepathic creatures – shift-shaping spiders that use a myriad of devious methods to breed, control and enslave a people in a world called Zolpash. But before this brutality, the cosmos, as told by the protagonist, Mayali, was far more splendidly captivating.

“Turtles were the first Lords of the Universe,” she tells her friend, Joseph, a deaf mute, with whom her fate is bound. She continues, “Before the Serpent of Many Colours wrapped creation inside its coils and sent children to rule over the many worlds, the Turtles put the planets, moons and stars in their places and set them in motion.”

But like all mythologies, turmoil follows and its inhabitants are caught in an existential struggle for freedom and justice. The Serpents face an indomitable enemy in the Spiders; they are defeated and now “the Spider Gods want to take over Guyana.”

Mayali who manages to slip through a cosmic crevice finds herself in the South American nation determined to find her father and marshal enough support to resist and defeat the “Brothers” sent to capture her.

Baksh traverses several complex subjects. We get a fair idea of Guyana’s social tapestry and throughout we are served with inscrutable questions. If God created all life, spiders included, did He create evil? And, did we create the gods, and not the other way around? These are challenging enquiries.

And the writer’s foray into inter-dimensional, quantum laws ignites the imagination to say the least.

Readers will also identify with the gnawing, perennial social issues that he addresses.

On learning of Joseph’s disability, compounded by his social standing, a policeman remarked, “You buck and dumb? Man, you must be really stupid.” It was an insult not uncommon to Joseph and Mayali, “even in Mabaruma.”

Baksh injects feminine pride and power in the most brilliant and paradoxical of ways. During her escape, we learn that Mayali used her menstruation to save her life.

“The pond bubbled behind her. Were they following her to this new world? It seemed unlikely. The fanatics on the other side were taught that women corrupted water….It was her bleeding time of the month too. She smiled. She hoped they could taste it when they drank from their stupid fountain. Of course, it was more likely that they would fill the thing with dirt rather than touch it again.”

Throughout, Baksh displays a literary elegance that is worthy of note. His narrative can be superbly taut and vividly descriptive. He showcases his talent at the very outset, “In the land of the Spider gods, a girl counted the stars and waited. The hillside where she crouched was exposed to the eyes of the enemy with just a few mossy and pungent boulders for cover…They lit flambeaus and put them out again in an order only they understood…In the land of her mother’s grave and her father’s memory, a girl waited.”

Still there are pedestrian, banal moments when Baksh’s magic dims and the characters appear lost as they search for relevance. Legendary folk character, Anansi, helps in the recovery and so does the “obeah” scene. And fortuitously, the ubiquitous and rambunctious Rafeek, and the frightening Zarco, add to the colour and tempo of a plot that began gasping for air.

As the showdown between Mayali and the “Brothers” looms Baksh more than recaptures the ethos of this remarkable work. He closes ever so decisively and for the last time weaves a rapturous web around his more than satisfied readers. Did someone say “sequel?”

Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby

Blouse and Skirt Books, Kingston

ISBN 978-976-8267-01-6

Available at Amazon

Ratings: Highly recommended

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