Not even gonna pretend: there’s a ton in this book that I just did not understand despite my best efforts. “Slave Old Man” is incredibly dense despite being only 176 pages. It’s categorized as Literary Fiction but I’d argue this counts as Poetry. The prose is beautiful but can feel hectic and inaccessible. Translated from the French Creole, “Slave Old Man” is about a slave who “maroons” from the sugar plantation and escapes into the thick of the jungle, doggedly tracked and pursued by the master’s dog. It took me nearly a month to get through this book and it’s one I expect to revisit again and again. ( )

This was just gorgeous and harrowing from beginning to end. The complexity and interplay of the autobiographical, cultural, and historical; the fever dream of the protagonist's flight; the clash of nature vs. man; and overall the commentary on slavery. It should also be noted that readers of the English translation should read every word of translator Linda Coverdale's preface, afterword, and notes for as complete of an understanding as can be had (the word-nerd in me had a blast). ( )

I could spend a month and 20,000 words trying to write some deep and penetrating review of this highly-touted and prize-winning book. But I won't, because I found it essentially impenetrable.

There's some interesting language here, in this story or poem or fever-dream about a runaway slave on the island of Martinique, pursued by his master and a fearsome dog. I'm sure it's all very symbolic and deep, but frankly it was just annoying, and if it hadn't been a group read for my F2F club, I would have never picked it up and certainly wouldn't have finished it. ( )

Slave Old Man is as much lyric poem as prose novel. The translation is not great. But the power it holds. I listened as audiobook, an interpretive performance of a translation. Not great. But.. Lots of lush descriptions of nature, the sense of a closed but limitless world. The climatic scene with the beast is legend. The end-note annotations are a big part feels like a scholarly history and high-art combine. ( )

A haunting vision in a perfect translation package
Review of the English translation hardcover (2018) of the French/Creole original "L'Esclave vieil homme et le molosse" (The Slave Old Man and the Mastiff) (1999)

This story of an escape into the bush is an immersive tale that is by turns poetic and haunting with a conclusion that does somewhat enter into magic realism and meta-fiction. What bumps it into a 5 rating is the thorough backgrounds that are provided by translator Linda Coverdale. These are comprised of a Translator's Note as introduction, an Afterword and Translation Notes which together make up about 1/3rd of the book's volume.

There are a considerable number of Creole words left untranslated in the body of the text which are then translated and explained in the back end notes section. This does somewhat impede your reading flow in a first run through but not that significantly due to the novella length. Leaving these words in the text body does add to the entire immersive experience so you should be prepared to go with it.

Trivia and Links
Most of the English language translation editions use a cropped image from the painting "The Hunted Slaves" (1861) by Richard Ansdale (1815-1885). The full image would give the wrong impression of the number of dogs and people involved.
See full painting at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/The_Hunted_Slaves_by_Richard...
Image source: Wikipedia Commons ( )