I Get on the Bus: A Novel [Paperback]

Reginald McKnight (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1992

The tale of a young African-American man's desultory quest for his own identity while living amidst the mysteries of modern-day Senegal. Battling a malarial fever, Evan Norris is taken in by the family of a powerful Marabou and finds himself absorbed in a world that is both ancient and modern.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McKnight's ( Moustapha's Eclipse ) first novel is set in Senegal, where Evan Norris, a restless Afro-American from Denver, has wandered to escape his comfortable middle-class existence and near-engagement to a racially aware, black American psychiatrist. Recruited by the Peace Corps, he fights off malarial fever while wondering, "Am I black enough now . . . ?" Quitting the Corps, Norris then drifts "half-bemused, half-terrified" through a series of surreal experiences punctuated by nightmarish bus rides. Exhausted, he ends up in a tiny village, where he is cared for by the family of a marabou , or holy man. There Norris becomes lost in a contemplation of the forces that have shaped him, a growing paranoia about evil spirits and a steamy relationship with the marabou's beautiful, American-educated daughter. Winner of the 1988 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, McKnight writes in an incantatory, original voice about the struggle for black identity. While his protagonist at times wallows in self-pity, and his plot leans heavily on the exotic, the volume offers a riveting, dramatic vision of the oft-told story of returning to one's roots.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Evan Norris, a young black from a well-to-do family residing in the suburbs of Denver, notes that "the black people we did know were not like us. They were nervous about their blackness. They were, I think, ashamed of it. And shame is the pivot that leads . . . black folks to madness." The words prove ironic, for it is Evan who will suffer most from a lack of identity, who is "nervous" about his blackness, and who finds himself driven to the edge of madness. His search for self takes him via the Peace Corps to Senegal, where, rather than finding his roots, he comes to realize how alien they are to him. He contracts malaria, suffers hallucinations, and is used by the local marabou--a kind of shaman--as a pawn in an elaborate game of revenge. Evan's tragedy is that of a man caught between cultures. Without a "soul" of his own, he is doomed, as the marabou perceives, to eat the souls of others. In some respects reminiscent of John Fowles's The Magus , this first novel is not easy reading. It unfolds slowly, perhaps a bit too slowly, but those who persevere will find it rewarding. For serious fiction collections.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (P) (February 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316560588
• ISBN-13: 978-0316560580
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,264,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Post Afrocentric Bible, December 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: I Get on the Bus: A Novel (Paperback)

For the last three centuries, black Americans, disillusioned with America, have looked to the ancestral land of Africa as a near mythical retreat. From the Anti-Bellum ramblings of David Walker, the Black Star Line rhetoric of Garvey, to the expatriate movement of the latter twentieth century, Africa has continued to hang in the distance, the supposed Utopia where melanin is master and ofays are absent. Heaven. Enter I GET ON THE BUS, and with it, despite the surrealistic ramblings of one confused and cursed Peace Corps brother, enter truth. Africa is bigger than all our romances and to stand before it is to stand before a moving train, its people have their own loyalties that don't conform to black American desires, needs. It is a land that invites a fool, then ignores it as it is devoured. And for this tale we are given a voice that is as passionate as it is dislocated, replacing unmentionable emotions with florid descriptions soaked in frustration, anger and confusion. "I get on the bus." A mantra repeated again and again from a speaker constently struggling to negotiate the world in which he's found himself trapped.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best book I ever read, February 5, 1999

By 

James Altucher ([e-mail]) (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Get on the Bus (Hardcover)

Surreal, horrifying, intense - an African-American explores the meaning of the hypen and slips into a very personal nightmare. What I like best is how the structure of the story - nonlinear, hallucinatory - mirrors what's going on in the main character's head. Despite (or because of) the obvious literary merits, the book is a page-turner in the same way a horror novel would be. Really the best book I have ever read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This book challenges the African American idea of "homeland", October 8, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: I Get on the Bus (Hardcover)

This book provoked many uncomfortable thoughts, ideas and feelings about African Americans in search of themselves, via the "mother land". In it, the protagonist goes to Senegal ( a West African Country, contrary to previous reviewer's information about the Continent) to find himself and recover from depression. In a malaria induced state of delirium, he witnesses a murder which illicits his drive to find meaning for his life. I felt the journey of the protagonist to be similiar to that which many African American men face; how to find meaning for one's life and leave an impression on the world in the wake of trauma. As the story unfolds, West African mysticism becomes central to the storytelling, which again parallels the search of the "common man." I enjoyed the book. I found it compelling in it's approach toward addressing contemporary social issues facing African Americans, with an international twist. *** If anyone knows how to aquire additional copies of this book, I'd like to purchase others. Please contact me at the email address listed above.*****