Devil is fine tells the story of a biracial man who has just lost his teenage son. He inherits a plot of land that was meant for his son upon reaching age 18, but since his son died before then, he inherits it instead. Intending to sell the land and arranging routine inspections prior to the sale, he finds that the land is a former plantation and has the skeletons of enslaved people as well as the plantation owners on it. These developments wreak havoc with the narrator's mental stability, and an element of magical realism enters the story. The narrator has regular conversations with his dead son, he is transported into the past where he inhabits the persona of the plantation owner as he abuses his slaves, and other times he experiences hallucinations that he is turning into a jellyfish. In the meantime, he has a high level of difficulty getting along with everyone else in his life, including his son's mother, his co-worker, and new people he meets along the way. I found his conversations with others to be so filled with hostility that it was difficult to imagine anyone behaving that way, even someone grieving the way he is. Eventually, after what seems like a series of psychotic breaks, he has an epiphany that allows him to move forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment