Feeding The Ghosts [Paperback]

Fred D'Aguiar (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus (1997)
• ASIN: B000WWEMGY
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grand storytelling!!, June 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Feeding the Ghosts (Hardcover)

This work is the best story expounding the imhumanity the peddling in flesh trade produced. By providing a portrait of victim and victimizer, Feeding the Ghost shows the banality humanity faced when coupled with the bottomline. I really, enjoyed this book and suggest that everyone read this story. Moreover, the imagery of the African coast, Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean folk culture leap off of the page into one's imagination. What more can I say than kudos to Fred D'Aguair. And strongly suggest that everyone read this vivid portrayal of life not so long ago.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Imagery Juxtaposed with the Middle Passage, December 6, 2005

By 

M. Kim (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feeding the Ghosts (Paperback)

D'Aguiar takes the creative license to create a story about a woman Mintah on the Middle Passage of the slave trade. When disease starts affecting those on board the slave ship Zong, the captain orders all the sick to be thrown into the sea. The narrative then closely follows Mintah as she survives being thrown overboard, climbs back on to the ship, lives secretly in the supply room with the help of Simon, the young cook's aid, and writes her experiences in a journal. D'Aguiar's language throughout the novel is simplistic yet so effective in describing the extraordinary events that surround Mintah, our heroine, that it is impossible to not be engaged with the storyline.

The only time that I felt that the narrative was jarred was in Part 2. This is the only part when D'Aguiar moves away from Mintah's perspective. Perhaps other reader consider this section to be necessary to the progression of the plot. I just wished the transition from the ship Zong to the court room.

An image manipulated in the novel is the sea. It comes to represent a conqueror, a friend, or an enemy. Its implications as a witness to and an embracer of the jettisoning of the Africans is thought-provoking and incredibly compelling.

Read this book. It will make you cry over something, whether it be the subject matter, Mintah's relationship with Simon, or just the lovely diction and imagery conjured by D'Aguiar.

4.0 out of 5 stars African diaspora, November 26, 2011

By 

E. A. Speed "whitechocolate" (El Paso/Ft Bliss TX) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Feeding the Ghosts (Hardcover)

D'Aguiar has written a very good version of what occurred on the slave ships as the Atlantic was crossed on the way to the Americas. He has made the reader experience the horrors as if they were there to see the horrendous events that happened. It is a useful selection in the library of a reader who is interested in the African diaspora.