Morowa Yejide

Absolutely stunning!! This novel's been compared to certain excellent [and now classic] writers, but I have reviewed it on its own merits--a dazzling tour-de-force, shot through with aspects of Egyptian mythology along with magic realism and supernaturalism. It was full of misery in the lives of certain African Americans, living in Anacostia, a slum section of Washington, D.C. but although horror-filled in the Juneteenth chapters, it ended on a hopeful note. Unforgettable!

Creatures of Passage is an unusual novel in today's landscape, but one I'm glad I got to experience.

The cultural background formed by mostly Gullah peoples making (or perhaps passing through) their lives in the poor DC neighborhood of Anacostia in what feels like an alternate-universe version of the United States but sometimes doesn't, woven through with various elements of what might be called urban fantasy or magical realism but so smoothly so that every weave clearly belongs right where show more it is, and told from a richly fluid word-of-mouth storyteller-historian point of view that here and there touches on the poetic, all delivers a rich story experience built on top of what is otherwise a relatively simple story.

Creatures of Passage is just different and odd enough that I don't know that I ever would have found it myself if I hadn't happened across its foggy blue cover in a LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway. I would come to much appreciate my seconds minutes hours with it, though I had no way of knowing this at the time... ;-) show less

It’s 1977 in the New World and Nephthys Kinwell travels Anacostia, a quadrant of Washington, DC in her haunted Plymouth with a dead white girl in the trunk, ferrying wandering souls from one place to another. It’s these creatures of passage for which Morowa Yejidé names her book.

These lost souls aren’t Nephthys’ only concern. Her family, dead and alive, consumes her. Osiris, Nephthys’ twin, was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River. Gola, Osiris’ pregnant wife, died of a show more hit and run. Amber, their daughter, survived the hit and run, only to become The Death Dreamer, writer of obituaries before the deaths occur. Dash, her son, is haunted by an atrocity he’s witnessed and chased by the perpetrator. Red, Dash’s father, is a Vietnam vet running from a crime long committed. All are either dead or surrounded by death.

Creatures of Passage is surreal, magical, and heart rendering. It’s not an easy read, but it’s all consuming. The heart of the novel in Morowa Yejidé’s words is “Rather, the worry of man was the worry of all creatures; the Great Fear of all souls seeking passage through the empires of the world…the dread that before they became shadow and mist, they would never find the place where they belong.” show less

This description-defying novel is set in 1977 in Washington, DC. (Or maybe an alternate version of Washington DC? Or maybe really, really not.) It features, among others: Nephthys, who ferries needy souls from place to place in a haunted car; the spirit of her murdered brother, Osiris; Osiris' daughter, Amber, who foresees death in dreams; Amber's son Dash, who has witnessed something terrible he scarcely understands; Mercy, the child molester who threatens Dash for discovering his secret; show more and Dash's father, a traumatized wanderer unable to cope with who he became in Vietnam. And it's about a whole complicated stew of human things: loss, violence, racism, family, hope, death, and all the things and people that haunt us.

The complex, dreamlike writing style sometimes times struck me as powerful, sometimes merely as strange, and to be honest I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about all of it, but never for a moment did it cease to be interesting, in the good way. show less