Customer Reviews

Canaan's Tongue

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

reviews of this book in the NY Times and other periodicals may give one the impression that this is an historical novel about the slave trade on the mississippi river, circa civil war. the primary focus of this book , however, is on the often violent relationships among the sociopathic members of the slave trading gang portrayed in the book. furthermore, the tone of the book is quite surrealistic and some elements of the story are bizarre and fantastical.

other reviewers have commented that this is a hard read, and it is. the prose has been aptly described as "gothic". the author, mr. wray, doesn't seem to elaborate the plot very directly, he rather refers to it an oblique sort of way. as a result, readers may be left confused and frustrated.

on the plus side, this book was obviously a labor of love. the prose is exceedingly elegant and poetic; the book seems well researched, and the author is quite clever with some of the literary devices he employs. one also does pick up some history along the way, and the book drips with the ambience of the times. Ultimately, despite it's shortcomings, i found myself drawn to this book: though frustrating, it was hard to put down.

The excitement I got from reading this novel reminded me of the first time I read a book by Cormac McCarthy, or Garcia Marquez, or even early Steven King. It's just unforgettable. Like the writers I've mentioned, Canaan's Tongue creates a world that looks a lot like ours, a world that convinces completely but at the same time is deeply strange and unsettling. I read in an interview that Wray wanted to write a book that commented on America today--sort of like a fairy-tale, but also like a political cartoon--and maybe that explains the bizarreness of some parts of the narrative. Except this book is way too creepy to be a political cartoon. I read it in about two days, and I really felt somehow altered when I finished the last page. Unbelievably powerful writing!

Literary historical fiction, ostensibly about slave-stealers during the Civil War.

But really about belief and its pitfalls, mysticism that cannot entirely be explained away, and the choice that America during the Civil War was on the verge of making.

Canaan's Tongue features one appealing character and others who are fascinating (like snakes). At times it's darkly humorous and at other times beautiful or grotesque. As historical fiction, it succeeds in taking no account at all of modern beliefs or politics (thankfully). At the same time, it can be interpreted as an indictment of the "modern civilization" that was to come -- where everything becomes the Trade.

I think this is a great novel that has somehow slipped into the world without much fanfare. I highly recommend it.

The remnants of a shattered crime organization wait on a Southern plantation for the Civil War to finish them off. So goes the plot of Canaan's Tongue, the second book by prizewinning author John Wray (The Right Hand of Sleep). Their charismatic if physically stunted and theatrical leader, Thaddeus Morelle, a "plain-faced dumpling of a man" known as the Redeemer, is dead, leaving his underlings to piece together this assemblage of individual retrospectives. Their trade, which involves the springing of slaves to sell at a profit and eventually murder, is threatened by the rising tide of abolitionist sentiment, the same on which they once depended.

Vicious criminals, yes, and yet none of Wray's characters are at any point islands unto themselves. Instead, they are all subject to the will of a still-higher power, becoming its "play-thing" and being "fashioned and favored toward that end alone." Even the big shots get stuck with this bone. This is life as part of "the Trade," a continuously re-invented enterprise that we are told will eventually encompass the world and hide in the very language, feeding on us even while we think ourselves cured.

The novel's political premise is none-to-subtle; men and women, lured by the promise of freedom and prosperity, walk right into slavery and death. "The country itself will have this fever," we are warned, and "its transparency will be its shelter." Yet if Wray stops just short of using billboards to advertise this point, Canaan still manages to fascinate us with its gothic intrigue and imaginative strangeness. It is a rare and absorbing book that manages to transcend both historical period and cultural agenda to deliver what is ultimately a fresh perspective on a tried and tired Matrix school of thought.

John Wray's ambitious second novel features a broad, almost epic scope and a huge cast of characters, members of a violent gang run by a messianic preacher, Thaddeus Morelle. Known as "the Redeemer," Morelle runs The Trade, a business in which runaway slaves participate in a scheme in which they are sold downstream, aided in running away, and then resold again, with Morelle "sharing" the fees. The highest levels of government, including an aide and Cabinet member of President Lincoln, and army officers from both the North and South, are involved in the Trade. When war breaks out, however, Morelle and his men become the common enemy of both sides.

By 1863, Morelle (sometimes known as Myrell or Murrell) has created his own world on Island 37 in the Mississippi River, "the cradle of the [slave] trade," just north of New Orleans. Virgil Ball, son of a Kansas preacher, "student of Spinoza and Descartes," and the focus of much of the action, is "the Redeemer's darling," bright, literate, and willing to commit murder without remorse. The other members of the gang, equally violent and even more bizarre, gradually reveal how they, too, have become associated with Morelle and how they have acted on his instructions.

In the second half of the novel, the "religion" of Morelle and his "apostles" gains more attention, with numerous references to a small blind child, the OLD Old Testament, the sephira of the kabbala, mystical symbols, the "ladder of the spirit," and cleansing through violence. Believing that the Canaanites are the descendants of the sixth tribe of Israel, Morelle's followers wish to learn "Canaan's tongue...the language of the elect."

The story moves back and forth in time and is told through the first-person points of view of the eight gang members. (Their identities are revealed, oddly, through the key phrase "Virgil [or someone else] says," embedded in the first sentence of each chapter. The 3rd person point of view then switches suddenly, and without any transition, to a first person account by the named person). Samuel Clemens's reference to the Redeemer, a letter in which he talks of meeting "Murel," a letter from Morelle to Sec. of State Seward, along with daybooks, a court inquiry, occasional poetry, and quotations from famous people give a sense of historicity to the novel.

Unfortunately, the bizarre and violent characters do not inspire much reader sympathy, and the constantly shifting points of view sometimes make the action difficult to place chronologically. The concept of the Trade and its support by government officials is fascinating, even exciting, and possibly allegorical, but Morelle's unusual religion, which the reader must figure out from often indirect references throughout the narratives, is esoteric and not always clear. Challenging in concept and broad in scope, however, the novel marks a gigantic step forward for a brilliant young writer. Mary Whipple

A month ago, I offered a review of John Wray's book, "Lowboy." I was so taken with the unique character of his writing that I immediately carved out time to read one of his earlier works, "Canaan's Tongue." I was even more impressed with my second taste of Wray's story telling. This tale is told in a very different voice - or rather, symphony of voices - than the voice Wray used in "Lowboy."

Imagine a blend of Faulkner and Mark Twain, with a twist of Dickens' Pickwick Papers, and you will have a good idea of the feel that the writer creates in painting a vivid group portrait of a motley group of rogues - all toiling under the dubious leadership of "The Redeemer." Set before and during the Civil War, the narrative follows the misadventures of a gang of horse thieves and slave traders. Based on the real historical character, John Murrell and his disciples, Wray's tale shines a light on the dark underbelly of American life on the Mississippi as the sun was setting on the era of slavery. The introduction of elements of Jewish Kabbalah add an aura of mysticism to the proceedings.

Let me share two brief excerpts to allow you to taste Wray's original and wry literary style. In this portion of the story, the protagonist, Virgil Ball, is about to open the hatch on the hold of a slave ship that is transporting scores of slaves on the Mississippi River:

"When the bolt slid open the sound stopped short, leaving a sudden vacancy in the air, as though a piano-wire had snapped. A humid silence met me as I raised the hatch, broken only by a rasping - or a wheezing, better said - in the far corner of the hold. The smell of piss and sweat and excrement seized me by the throat and commenced to wring the breath out of me slowly. A step-ladder extended two rungs downward, perhaps three, before vanishing into darkness. The stench and the dampness and a steady tightening of my bowels, as though in anticipation of a blow, were all there was to tell me I was being watched by two-score pair of eyes." (Page 99)

This final passage sets the scene for a climactic encounter with a prisoner the gang has captured and immured in the basement of their lair:

"My last day at Geburah begins softly, Virgil says. I've been sitting in the lampless parlor half the night when the house-door sighs open, delicate as hackled lace. A moment later Parson flutters by. He glances into the parlor as he passes, shading his eyes, but he fails to see me slumped over in the dark. He moves down the hall. The cellar door opens, then shuts, and I draw in a breath. I rise from the settee more carefully than a spinster. A draft curls about my shins, leafy with the smell of coming rain. Something is going to happen. It sits like a clot of river-bottom in my throat.

Parson is quiet as dust on the cellar steps but he can't keep them from creaking subtly as he descends. His oversight has given me an advantage over him, the first in our long acquaintance, and I'm determined not to let it pass. I steal lightly down the hall. He's left the cellar door unlatched. I reach the top of the steps just as he gets to the bottom.

To go any further would be to lose straight-away, so I crouch at the top of the steps and bide. I see nothing but the rough pine boards leading down into the blackness -; I hear nothing but my own unsteady breathing. I've just begin to wonder whether Parson hasn't vanished through some fissure in the earth when a voice comes out of the gloom, measured and precise, n0 more than an arm's-length below me -: 'Open your mouth, Mr. Foster. Have a drink.'" (Page 301)

This gloomy tale is mesmerizing and captivating. I look forward to reading Wray's other novel, "The Right Hand of Sleep," and I eagerly anticipate his future literary offerings.

Enjoy!

Al

I had to backtrack and check out some of the interesting history involved here... I had occasional trouble (as usual, you might charge) following clearly along this novel's trail, so I propose 3 stars, 3.5 at most. Don't know what others have been reading to post all these 5 star ratings? C'mon, dudes, how many 5 star books are there? Anyway, in terms of a skeletal framework for this truth-based tale and, even, some of the characterization, this was a fine effort. Twain influence is obvious but I also felt a lot of Blood Meridian undertones and can't help but wish McCarthy had mined this lucrative vein. The author is fairly young evidently but, with a strong editor, shows a potentially strong upside. Still, a pretty good read, see what you think...

Man, this book is slammin'! It shines amidst the young-upper-middle-class-male-with-a-sex-perversion stuff which young authors seem deadset on producing these days. It is really close to perfect. Why, one might ask? Because it is everthing a novel should be: riveting, moving, mindblowingly well-written, with wonderful, lovingly crafted characters, and most important of all, I think, copious nodding to those who have come before (also lacking these days), ie---Poe, Faulkner, McCarthy (mini-Faulkner), and maybe a even a little Les Murray, for this Wray fellow is a poet of the highest order. Do read.

I read a review of John Wray's latest novel, LOWBOY(2009), which mentioned that his two earlier books, CANAAN'S TONGUE (2005) and THE RIGHT HAND OF SLEEP (2001), had both received good reviews but that neither had sold very well. So, I began with CANAAN'S TONGUE to see what the praise was about.
It's a challenging, at times maddening, novel about delusion and corruption in American life. It opens with a quotation from Mark Twain's LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI about a villain called "the redeemer" whose gang activities involve stealing horses and the selling and reselling of captured slaves. In HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Twain has his own lowlife characters on the Mississpippi, the "King" and the "Dauphin" who are as immoral a pair of scoundrels as you'll find in literature. It's as if Wray is doing a gloss on the mentality of such villains with his own gang of not two, but six characters, the leader being the "redeemer". They are caught in the crossfire of the Civil War which disrupts their slave selling and subjects them to murderous infighting, obliquely reflecting the infinitely larger carnage of the Civil War. What binds them together is their involvement in this particular version of the "Trade" (any kind of deceitful money-making which as one character points out, never vanishes in this country). That and as one character puts it, "Belief is a river and it has drowned me." A misplaced belief in their ability to survive, no matter what.
All of this sounds good - why then didn't the novel become popular? My guess is that it's a difficult read, with multiple characters each telling their own twisted narrative versions of the narrative, and ending with the destruction of all of the characters. Truthful, but hardly uplifting.

CANAAN'S TONGUE is easily one of the Ten Best novels of 2005; one of the Very Best of the last ten years. John Wray is a wonderful writer with a keen sense of language, character, and history.