Brynn S. reviewed on 8/31/2011 + 8 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I loved "Pym" for its humor, swooping fantasy, and unexpected profundity. The story within a story (within a story...) structure at first seemed coy, but ended up working successfully as it revealed so much more than a love/hate relationship with Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket." "Pym" both parodies and flatters this earlier work in a seesaw of imitation and criticism that mirrors main character Chris Jaynes' own complicated relationship with race.

More than anything, I appreciated the fearless imagination employed by author Mat Johnson to unearth the overwhelming (and typically invisible) subject of Whiteness. Wrapping the chilly subject of the long history of US racism in a hilarious tattered robe of a tale, "Pym" takes risks that will make it one of the greats of American literature.

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