The Old Drift

How do I explain this large, luscious, multi-generational, historical novel? I scarcely know where to begin, though I admit that Salman Rushdie's glowing review on the cover of the New York Times Book Review last month certainly was the catalyst that attracted me. I simply did not want it to end!

Zambian writer Namwali Serpell's (https://www.namwaliserpell.com/) remarkable debut novel is one of those books that you can revel in, lost within the language, the characters, and never want to put down. Set in Rhodesia at the time of the infamous Stanley and Livingstone, based upon the building of the first railroad over the great Zambezi River at Victoria Falls, the narrative ranges from the late 1800's to 2024.

Through the lives of three families - and yes, you will need to continually refer to the genealogy tree in the front of the book - one black, one white, and one mixed-race, Serpell illuminates the good, the bad, and the ugly involved in the development of her native land which is now Zambia.

Readers will have to suspend disbelief in order to accept the Greek chorus of malarial mosquitos that comments and explains throughout. Then there are the phantasmagorical characters like Sibilla, who was born enshrouded in fast-growing hair that covers her entire body, or Matha, whose lover leaves her crying a river of tears that continues for thirty years. I loved Agnes, the British aristocrat, daughter of an MP, whose tennis career was brought to a halt by blindness. Rebelling against the coddling of her parents, she  falls for her father's mentee, a Rhodesian student named Ronald, with whom she makes her escape to Africa, unaware of their color difference.

In mellifluous language Ms. Serpell creates a world based on facts and fantasy in which there is much humor, some pathos, political skullduggery, love and jealousy, abandonment and cruelty. Readers will hear about Afronauts, the creation of the world's first drones, and the birth of studies into the AIDS virus. They will witness the cruelty of colonialism mingled with the scourge of tribalism.

It's practically unbelievable that this could be a first novel. Reviewers have called it Dickensian in scope, bold and sweeping. For me it's novels like this that fill that chasm I've always felt where my deeper knowledge of history should be. Sometimes our teachers are less than inspiring. If only they could add great fiction to their syllabi. What better way to fill in the gaps?