The Far Journey of Oudin

Book excerpt: Set like his first novel in The Guyana Quartet in the former colony of British Guiana, the second novel The Far Journey of Oudinis further proof of the intensity and originality of Wilson Harris's imaginative power and literary skill. Against a background of swamp, jungle and savannah a strange drama is played out in which the chief characters are the money-lender Ram - an evil, presiding genius - the illegitimate Beti whom all men desire, and Oudin the beggar who works for several masters and belongs to none. Focusing on the traumatizing effects of slavery on West Indian society, the novel depicts how the new-found freedoms and perceived social progress experienced by former peasants mask the fact that the old master-slave structure is reasserting itself among the descendants of an exploited people.