Books I Read March 16th, 2025

Back on that reading grind.

Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi – Another fantastical multi-generational African epic, Ugandan this time. Always interesting to see how even the most 'literary' works tend to function within their own genre ghettos.

African Kings and Black Slaves by Herman L. Bennett – An argument for a revisionist view of early Atlantic slavery which better takes into account the complexities of political relations between the early Portuguese and Spanish slave-traders and the lords and chieftains of Africa's eastern seaboard. This ended up being a more scholarly work than I'd anticipated, meaning that a great deal of it was concerned with framing its position amid the current academic dialogue, rather than concerning itself with the actual historical interactions of the day. Also, that virtually every sentence could be edited for clarity. Still, it effectively (if somewhat repetitively) fulfills its aims, and it did leave me interested in learning more about pre-Colonial eastern Africa, if anyone's got any suggestions.

The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp – Mid-century London's preeminent homosexual gadfly narrates his life history in ridiculously sharp prose. In my review of this some seven years ago I wrote 'I was impressed with it in a way which makes me almost not want to praise the thing too highly, for fear that today’s exhilaration will give way to tomorrow’s regret,' but in fact I'm not sure I quite did I justice. Crisp is obscenely witty, every line is sharp and clever, his comically bitter self-focus makes for an engaging anti-hero. But there's also a genuine sense of the profound tragedy of the human condition, one sharpened by Crisp's adoption of a persona of permanent outcast. Perhaps I'm not the best judge but for my money this absolutely belongs in the top tier of queer literature.

Augustown by Kei Miller – History of a pre-Rastifari Pentecostal preacher twinned with a schoolyard tragedy in 80s underclass Jamaica. I read this book.