Solibo Magnificent by Patrick Chamoiseau: book review

Martiniquan writer, Patrick Chamoiseau, has written a powerful and interesting book about a young man, Solibo, who loves to tell a story. Chamoiseau beautifully portrays the conflict between the ancient oral tradition of story-telling and the modern scientific and linguistic reality.

On one level, Solibo Magnificent (1999) is a gruesome and bloody burlesque on police methods of investigating a murder. On another deeper level, it is a lament for a disappearing culture of stories, magic, demons and superstition in favour of logic and the written word. It is also a tale of colonial stupidity and inevitability.

Chamoiseau’s prose is lyrical and evocative. It is more of an oral history than a verbal study – an attempt to revive the oral history of his culture.

He includes himself as one of the characters, contrasting his status as a mere story-teller with the central character, Solibo, the embodiment of a dying culture.

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