Pym: A Novel

Thanks to his uncle, I was introduced to author Mat Johnson and his new novel, Pym. Pym is part mystery, part satire, part sci-fi, and all entertaining--plus with a message. In fact, this is probably one of the funniest and most creative books that has been published in decades.English professor Chris Jaynes has just lost his college teaching position. Not only does he not want to teach Black Literature (which he was hired to teach) but he also refuses to join the school's Diversity Committee. As the only black faculty member, it's difficult to have a Diversity Committee without any diversity. Jaynes is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe, and especially, Poe's only novel: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. This novel is not Poe's best work, but Jaynes is haunted by Arthur Pym's sudden and mysterious demise in Antarctica, as well as the island that he discovered, Tsalal. The inhabitants of Tsalal are so black that even their teeth are black. Jaynes purchases a manuscript written by Dirk Peters (a fictional character in Poe's novel) and now Jaynes realizes that Poe's novel is probably nonfiction. With a settlement from the college, Jaynes recruits a crew of other African Americans (led by his cousin, ship captain Booker Jaynes) to retrace the steps of Arthur Pym and also, to harvest South Pole ice into drinking water (one of the last sources of pure water). What Jaynes discovers on Antarctica is not just shocking, but may also lead him to the same demise as Arthur Pym. Booker Jaynes describes it as a "snow honky problem" but it is much worse than that.Although Pym is hysterically funny at times, Johnson makes us take a meaningful look at race. His satire and comedy hide a serious side to this story. "I like Poe, I like Melville, I like Hemingway, but what I like the most about the great literature created by the Americans of European descent is the Africanist presence within it. I like looking for myself in the whitest of pages. I like finding evidence of myself there, after being told my footprints did not exist on that sand. I think the work of the great white writers is important, but I think it's most important when it's negotiating me and my people, because I am as arrogant and selfish a reader as any other." In many respects, Johnson shows true genius. He ends Pym with a dated, diary mode--just a Poe ended his novel.One extra bonus for me as a reader is that Mat Johnson grew up in Philadelphia (as does his character, Chris Jaynes) and he refers back to Philadelphia from time to time. In fact, I was fortunate to be able to hear Johnson read Chapter 1 of Pym in Philadelphia three days ago and it was a most entertaining evening. Unfortunately for Philly, Johnson now makes his home Texas where he teaches Creative Writing at the University of Houston. But I intend to seek out his earlier works and I will depend on his uncle to keep me abreast of any future writings.

May I muster the following? - Pym is the result of a writer's version of the competitive chef show Chopped. Hear me out:Writers, open your baskets. In your baskets are the following themes:-Little Debbie Snack Cakes-Atlantic Slave Trade-Antarctica-White Sasquatch-Thomas Kinkade - painter of lightYou must make your work of fiction from these ingredients. You have 200 (give it take) pages to get it done. Writers, begin your work...now!Judge: my 'dish' is well composed, but I would have liked to see a bit more slavery. Little Debbie snack cake overwhelms the work.😆

Some knowledge of the inner workings of academia would have been helpful to the writing of this book. So would some knowledge of American literature. It's very odd that someone would write about an English literature professor without having any inkling of what the professoriate and tenure process entails. This is supposed to be a book about an American literature professor, but apparently this professor knows absolutely nothing about American literature if he thinks Uncle Tom's Cabin was written in 1838 and that after its publication "african american autobiographical storytelling became antiquated"(43). Someone should have told that to Frederick Douglass, who didn't publish his narrative until 1845 and then to Harriet Jacobs who didn't publish Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl until 1861. Apparently, no one seems to know that Uncle Tom's Cabin was written between 1851-1852, and not in 1838 as Mat Johnson and his character wrongly assert (43).But there's more.As someone who actually has a PhD in American literature, I was interested in reading about a character who is an American literature professor, but I find myself unable to get past the first fifty pages of this novel, due to the presence of a great many factual inaccuracies. The scenario offered to the reader is one in which a professor of African American literature fails to receive tenure, is fired, has his items summarily packed up by the university and manages to meet his replacement hire in a bar. Not only is the process described completely unreal, but so is the character's surprise and anger. Chris Jaynes has no publications, does no service, refuses to teach what he's been hired to teach and thus has no students. Any university in the United States would also refuse to tenure him. The possibility of him being a sympathetic character is ruined at its foundation because it seems that either he or the author Mat Johnson (who actually is a professor) should know better. One or both of them is just clueless. Rather than feeling sorry for the protagonist, the reader doubts whether he should ever have been hired in the first place. Furthermore, the idea that the English dept. could legally advertise for his job before he failed to receive tenure is ludicrous and inaccurate. Tenure decisions are made in the spring and job postings go out in the fall. It's also impossible that they chould conduct campus interviews and visits for his job without him knowing about it, so there's no way the new replacement hire could magically appear. Additionally, when one fails to receive tenure, there is no immediate dismissal. You receive a one year contract during which to find another position. No one comes to pack up your office and vacate you until your contract is up for the academic year.I thought that maybe the lack of information or the incorrect usage of information could have been part of the "satire" but it's clearly not. It's just faulty and lazy research. The writer claims to have spent 8 years working on this text. I don't know what the 8 years entailed, but they obviously didn't include any sort of research. This book reads like a very watered down version of Percival Everett and Charles Johnson with some Junot Diaz-esque footnotes thrown in for flavor. Derivative.