Creatures of Passage

Creatures of Passage is an intelligent and beautifully written wander through generational pain. Set where Egyptian mythology lives in Washington, D.C. reality, the main character, Nephthys, ferries souls from world to world in her blue 1967 Plymouth Belvedere that always runs, always has a full tank, and always contains the spirit of a white girl in the trunk. The story of Nephthys’ extended family’s journey through loss and reconciliation unfolds in cycles and repetitions; repetition of language (“signs omens bones”), atrocities, travels, and history. Tragedies in African-American lives reoccur, abuse continues on child after child after child, damage proceeds unresolved.

But history is not condemned to repeat itself forever. show more Broken people heal. Souls move on. Evil is vanquished, at least for the moment. Community is allowed to grow. Nature and humanity are strongly connected throughout, in lush descriptions of the forest and sky. Everything is connected and everyone belongs in this world, condemning its inhabitants to responsibility for the present while freeing them from the past. show less

This book is skillfully written but sometimes takes off on whirlwind journeys that make it difficult to understand exactly what the author is actually trying to express. I have never before read anything by this author, but I do find that she is very good at bringing together a story that is both frightening as well as almost playful. The sum total is an unforgettable blurring of reality and genres. From the haunted Plymouth automobile to the mysteries in the fog in this alternate America and hidden Washington, DC filled with otherworldly landscapes… flawed super-humans…and reluctant ghosts, you will find that no matter what your feelings are about the content… you will know that you have never read anything quiet like it. That show more having been said...I believe it will take an audience with more Si-Fi tastes rather than supernatural preferences to really give it the appreciation that it deserves.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Akashic Books in exchange for an honest opinion. The views expressed by this reviewer are entirely my own. show less

My favorite part of this novel was learning about Anacostia—the scenery became quite vivid for me. The week after I read it, the NYT ran an interactive piece about the area, and included a picture of the big chair. The rest is ghosts of cruelty and anger tearing people apart, sometimes bringing a few together, and ruining my taste for lemonade, written with some grace.

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 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 show more 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 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 show more 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; 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, show more 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

First, it's a bit unfair to compare any writer to any legend such as Toni Morrison. I didn't want to read this book looking for "a new Toni Morrison book" and I wasn't expecting that. Who would want to or could compare? More voices the better. Here, Yejide combines Egyptian siblings Nephthys and Osiris with the history of Yejide's grandmother driving a cab in D.C. It's ghostly, atmospheric, Gothic -- it moves between realms. It's dark... switching between characters, one of them is a child abuser, which is almost a bit much for me, but luckily this perspective only lasts about twenty pages. I can't read an entire book from that perspective. (A child abuser is that LAST voice we need.) The switching perspectives with short chapters can show more sometimes be tricky, but I think it's used well here. This was quite the ride in the back of Nephthys's cab in 1977 Anacostia and to other ghostly places. If I HAD to compare the book to anything, I'd say it was most similar to Neil Gaiman or 'NOS4A2' by Joe Hill and maybe a dash of the place-as-character with many perspectives of James McBride's 'Deacon King Kong'. But this book is itself. It's a unique book and I'm glad I found it (I was originally drawn to that ghostly PERFECT cover). For an extra treat, find a virtual event with Yejide reading part of the book (or the audiobook) and Yejide's haunted reading style will haunt your reading of the book.
**I received this book to review as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Thank you! show less