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Redemption in Indigo: a novel Paperback – July 6, 2010
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Karen Lord’s debut novel won the prestigious Frank Collymore Literary Prize in Barbados, the Mythopeic, Carl Brandon Parallax, and Crawford Awards. It is an intricately woven tale of adventure, magic, and the power of the human spirit.
Paama’s husband is a fool and a glutton. Bad enough that he followed her to her parents’ home in the village of Makende, now he’s disgraced himself by murdering livestock and stealing corn. When Paama leaves him for good, she attracts the attention of the undying ones—the djombi—who present her with a gift: the Chaos Stick, which allows her to manipulate the subtle forces of the world. Unfortunately, a wrathful djombi with indigo skin believes this power should be his and his alone.
Bursting with humor and rich in fantastic detail, Redemption in Indigo is a clever, contemporary fairy tale that introduces readers to a dynamic new voice in Caribbean literature. Lord’s world of spider tricksters and indigo immortals, inspired in part by a Senegalese folk tale, will feel instantly familiar—but Paama’s adventures are fresh, surprising, and utterly original.
"Fantasy as a genre does not have boundaries," writes Lord. "It has roots. You may call it fantasy. I call it life.”
- Print length188 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSmall Beer Press
- Publication dateJuly 6, 2010
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-101931520666
- ISBN-13978-1931520669
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There's a small, but flourishing, group of Caribbean writers of African descent working in SFF at the moment, and I'm starting to read their work and, so far, finding it excellent. I very much enjoyed N.K. Jemison's first book, and this work of Karen Lord's is just as good. The language, for instance, is highly competent, more so than in all but a few books I read (like me, Lord has a degree in English language, and it shows). Even though it's told in the voice of a traditional storyteller, with the simplicity and directness of style that implies, it's a beautiful simplicity and directness. It's also flawlessly edited - meaning, most likely, that it was close to flawless when it was submitted.
The narrator's voice is very much present, saying things like "Perhaps I will tell you about it later, if we have the time." That's unusual in current writing, where the fashion is for a third-person narrative that tries to make the narrator disappear, and shows us the events from the perspective of the participants without quite using their first-person voices. (YA and urban fantasy are frequently exceptions, pulling out the full first-person perspective.) I found this evident narrator, displaying biases and assumptions openly, a refreshing change. At one point, the narrator says "The village court of Makendha, like village courts the world over..." Of course, as the author is well aware, village courts don't exist the world over, but in the world of the narrator, they do - and this is just the kind of thing that narrators, and authors, of Eurocentric fantasy tend to say, displaying their unquestioned belief that everywhere is like the places they are familiar with.
The book even concludes with a harangue to the reader from the narrator, talking about how some people will dislike the characters, and scolding those who don't want to take a moral or learn anything from the stories they consume. I thought this was bordering on too much narratorial voice, and it almost dropped my rating down to four stars, but the story itself is good enough that I forgive it.
The story situation is this: A powerful spirit, tasked with looking after humanity, has come to have a degree of contempt for them, and his power has accordingly been confiscated and handed over to a human. This human, a woman who's separated from her deeply flawed husband and whose most distinctive skill is an amazing ability to cook, has a number of adventures in which both she and some of those around her learn a great deal and change their perspectives on life.
That's the core story. However, it starts with the story of the idiot husband, and finishes with the story of the woman's sons, and both of these stories interact with the main story, giving and receiving light. It isn't a straightforward through-line such as I'm used to in fiction. Told in a different style, the beginning and end might seem tacked on, and an editor might prune them away, but told in the way this story is told, they both contribute to the whole book for reasons that are more related to theme and character than they are to plot, strictly defined.
The characters are beautifully drawn, from the trickster who finds himself becoming responsible to the main character, a strong woman whose strength is nothing at all to do with combat and whose greatest skill isn't used to resolve the plot (though it is important to building the character relationships). It's as far from a fantasy novel based on someone's game of D&D as you can get.
I've been reflecting lately that there are two major kinds of genre writing. The first kind is simply an adventure: unusual things happen to a character and they deal with them. Adventures are wonderful, and I enjoy them. What makes a much more lasting impression on me, though, are books of the second kind, in which the adventure points beyond itself to insights about human experience in general, of which the adventure is one example. This is a book of that second kind.
“Redemption in Indigo” by Karen Lord is a modern remake of an old fairy tale. The writing is witty and especially the point of view of the narrator makes it flow and intriguing as he or she addresses the reader directly and makes us part of the storytelling. It is a magical realism story, so it is inhabited by speaking spiders, Indigo Lord called Djombi, the spirit of Chaos, tricksters, poets, a gluttonous husband, and of course the protagonist—a brave, wise, and resilient woman, Paama, who earns our admiration. She left her husband Ansige, two years ago, and he finally decided to find her. That started the journey of all characters and spirits—they all travel for different reasons and learn from the people they encounter. The story’s tone is one of a fable with multiple messages and lessons about human nature and spirits. It reminds me of “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo. The pace of the story is similar too—the journey, the people with problems they meet, the lessons the one character teaches the other. A very enjoyable read for the fans of magic, fairy tales, and wise conclusions.
The narrator speaks as though they are sitting on a tree stump and we've all gathered around to hear them tell us this story. It reminded me of when my teachers would turn off the lights in our classroom and tell with Caribbean folklore stories with the most dramatic intonations. It was a kindling spark to my youth and it was very much appreciated.
For the plot itself, it was lax but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I feel like the story was very character-driven, rather than plot-driven but it worked out very well as I loved all the characters; each were very intriguing in their own right. The story was full of cultural callbacks to the Caribbean which brought a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. I've felt so happy to see myself and culture in a book, and down the narrator, it was perfection!
A redemption in indigo is book about duty and choices. It follows a woman whose duty is to family; a djombi who's lost his duty and tries to find his back to his calling; and a narrator who tells you their story without missing a beat to tell you why their decisions may not be the best. It's a book I loved and it's book I think I'll keep loving for a long time.
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Redemption in Indigo is a fairy tale with its own mythology. It does not read like an ornate, pretty, romantic-era literary fairy tale, but a traditional orally told fairy tale that just happens to be quite long. The start and finish allude to this oral tradition.
This is the story of a young woman who's run away from her gluttonous husband, and who is given a strange gift by eternal beings - a chaos stick. The chaos stick has been taken from another eternal being, as punishment for his behaviour, and he wants it back.
The tale is told with great pace (like all oral narratives), with characters sketched in such vivid and economical ways that they manage to own the stage when they're on it, and moments and scenes that could belong in any folk tale. Some bits are episodic: her gluttonous husband has three misadventures when visiting her village, the mysterious eternal lord shows her three things... just like old folk tales, there are elements of repetition and archetypal characters and episodes.
The setting appears to be Africa, but the era is cheerfully uncertain, giving the tale a certain timelessness.
Comparisons with Neil Gaiman's work were occasionally on my mind for a number of reasons. One was the Trickster - the spider, Nancy, the same trickster God that appeared in American Gods and Anansi Boys , who is not a very common character in Western / European narratives and whom not many readers might know about. The other reason is the shadowy eternal beings that are having duties and a conflict and that, in so many ways, are a bit like the Endless from the Sandman Slipcase Set: 1-10 series. So the story feels a little bit like what would happen if you squeeze Sandman through American Gods and Anansi Boys and filter it via Stardust (Neil Gaiman's fairy tale for adults): beautiful, sweet, with depth and richness and a real sense of stories and myths. If Karen Lord has not read any Neil Gaiman works, she has somehow managed to distill his lighter essence into a short novel through sheer magic. (Redemption in Indigo is not as dark as some of Gaiman's stories get).
I'd never heard of this novel or author before, but I am an instant fan. It was an absolute delight to read and I'd recommend this book to anyone.
"I have heard tales of how magnificently she can cook. I could relate for you a description of a morsel of her honey-almond cake, a delicacy which is light enough to melt on the tip of the tongue and yet it lingers on the palate with its subtle flavours long into the dream-filled reaches of the night. I could sing the praises, secondhand, alas, of her traveller's soup, a concoction of smoothly blended and balanced vegetables and herbs guaranteed to put heart and strength back into the bones of the weariest voyager.... I have just this moment recalled a certain jar that sits in her kitchen, filled with dried fruit steeping in spice spirit, red wine, cinnamon, and nutmeg, patiently awaiting that day months or even years hence when it will be baked into a festival cake that will turn the head of the most seasonal toper."
A great page turner which I would gladly recommend.







