The Ecstatic is a bizarre
novel featuring a 315-pound African-American protagonist with possible
schizophrenia, Anthony James, who relates his own story to the reader.  We
learn that James was a student at Cornell, but he dropped out and started
cleaning houses in Ithaca instead.  Eventually, his family drove up from their
home in Queens and collected him to live with his grandmother, mother (who is
on anti-psychotics), and 13-year-old sister.  James is a sharp-tongued
narrator.  For example, here is how he describes his sister: "Nabisase was
Old-Testament-beautiful; wrathful, privileged loveliness.  A short girl with
long legs and big thighs.  Her face was mostly lips and chin."  The most
dramatic part of the novel is a family trip down to Maryland for Nabisase to
take part in a beauty pageant for virgins. 

Novelist Victor LaValle writes with
gusto but the style is disorienting and it is a challenge for the reader to
maintain focus on the plot.  Characters come in and out of the story and you
are left with the feeling that if only you had paid more careful attention, you
would have a better idea what was going on.  Maybe James is an unreliable
narrator, and it is hard to know how much to trust him.  The rush of
hazily-described events leaves the reader bewildered and looking for a way to
sort out fact from fiction within the story, or at least get clear on what
holds the story together.  Take the start of chapter 29, for instance. 
"– You got French fried, I told Ishkabibble, because he looked worse
today than he had a week before.  I couldn’t stay home while my sister broke
Sidney Poitier’s chips into bits of dust.  After tossing Mom’s mattress around
I needed to get out."  It’s as if the words have the form of a narrative
but the words are so loosely associated as to make it impossible to follow. 

For most readers this will be
off-putting.  However, the energy in the writing is very appealing, and this
novel bristles with different ideas and characters.  The individual sentences
are simple and punchy, and you really want to like the book.  LaValle is a
promising writer, and The Ecstatic is a striking novel despite the
frustration it inflicts on the reader.  

© 2003 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island.
He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main
research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Fiction