Book Review
Palmares (2021)
by Gayl Jones
Gayl Jones is a legit 20th/21st century literary enigma. She burst onto the scene in the late 1970's after being sponsored by Toni Morrison. She published two novels in the late 70's, one book of short stories in both the 1980's and the 1990's, and then two novels at the end of 1990's, and that was it until Palmares was published last month. There is much to love in Palmares, a sprawling (500 page) picaresque about the adventures of Almeyda. Almeyda is born a slave on a Brazilian plantation in the 1600's. Slavery in 17th century Brazil was a different institution than the ante-bellum slavery of the American south in the 19th century. The oppression Jones depicts is just as virulent, and in many ways more violently repressive, but less succesful at controlling resistance than the American institution that evolved centuries later.
Thus, the title, Palmares, refers to a settlement of escaped African slaves and free blacks that really existed between 1604 and 1694. Almeyda spends half the book trying to get there, gets there, survives an extinction level attack by the colonialists and spends the rest of the book looking for her lost husband, Martim Anninho, a free black Muslim who is equally interesting. Much of the length of Palmares is due to so many characters having a chance to tell their story, often in subchapters titled "So and so tells their story," The plot, which is itself complicated, twists itself around the different monologues. I loved listening to the Audiobook version- which is something like 25 hours long- but I also would have liked to read a physical copy to see all the names and places written down.
Anywho, big thumbs up for me, Palmares is just the kind of book I like to read. Looking forward to more of her work being published, and going back and reading her prior books. The fact that I hadn't already heard about her is borderline embarrassing, but her twenty years away from the game is a pretty good explanation.
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