The rhythms of the Jazz Age take center stage in Paule Marshall's 'The Fisher King.' In her first novel in nine years, Marshall remains true to the themes that have shaped her other works'the flavor of a small Brooklyn community, the struggles of the African American family, love and reconciliation.
'The Fisher King' revolves around the return of 8-year-old Sonny to America'more than 30 years after his grandfather, the great jazz musician Sonny-Rett Payne, fled to Paris to escape racism and embrace artistic freedom. Sonny is accompanied by his caretaker, Hattie, an old friend of his grandfather's, who still cannot accept the country of her birth and the people who drove her away from it.
They are there to attend a memorial concert for Payne, who died mysteriously in a Paris subway before Sonny was born. During his stay, Sonny meets all the relatives he never knew he had, including his two great-grandmothers, who live on opposite sides of the same street but do not speak to each other. On this trip Sonny learns of the rivalries that keep his family apart, and attempts to heal old wounds.
Sonny is an artist, always drawing castles with himself dressed as a knight on guard to protect what is inside. Taken from an Arthurian tale about a king held hostage in his own castle until his unknown grandson comes to rescue him, Marshall uses the legend of the Fisher King as the basis for her novel.
'[The King's grandson] has the capacity, the ability, the gift, to heal and to restore, and to reconcile. Well, that was just perfect for my purposes,' Marshall said in an interview with The Daily Cardinal.
Sonny is the instrument of healing for his family when he draws himself as a knight, and he is also, according to Marshall, 'by extension, protecting and ensuring black artistic expression.'
'I did some research and discovered that the Fisher King legend was not exclusively Western European,' Marshall said. 'It is a universal kind of folktale legend. This is a legend you find in West Africa, that you find in Asia ... it comes out of many cultures.'
Though much of the book is based on the Arthurian legend, Marshall uses many elements from her life in the book. She grew up in a Brooklyn neighborhood, which she calls 'a beloved country,' just like the one described in the novel. She also shares Sonny's mixed West Indian and African American heritage.
'[Brooklyn] is a place that I am still in many ways trying to understand,' Marshall said. 'This was a community of strivers who were not ready to accept a vocation like jazz as a legitimate career.'
But it was from this community that she got the idea for the elder Sonny, the virtuoso jazz pianist. He is named after a cousin that Marshall never met, but who became a jazz musician and then died mysteriously during service in World War II. His picture resided on top of the piano in Marshall's house, although there was a falling out between their families.
'One of the things you are always using as a fiction writer is your experience and things in your life that for some reason or another have an impact on you, and remain with you, almost nagging you, until you know that the only way that you will be able to exorcise them is to write about them. And that was very true with this cousin of mine,' Marshall said.
Like the jazz it is built on, the novel moves with a rhythm that flows through each of the characters, from the headstrong Hattie to the innocent Sonny. It is written almost in a stream-of-consciousness mode, not hemmed in by many commas and periods.
The action in the novel appropriately comes to a head at the memorial concert, which moves back and forth between an inner and outer dialogue that sways to the music. This rhythm is a signature of Marshall's work, and she attributes much of her writing influence to her 'beloved country.'
'It came about, largely because of the way that the marginalized groups dealt with English,' Marshall said. 'There was a wonderful kind of poetry that my parents, these West Indians and their community brought to the English language. They introduced a whole different kind of rhythm and syntax, wonderful sayings and proverbs and biblical quotes, just making it a language that more fittingly described them. And the same thing was true of African Americans. My ear has always been attuned to the wonderful poetry that they brought to the language.'
'The Fisher King' is short and sweet and will leave a rhythm in your head, long after reading it. The characters are enduring, real and thought-provoking. Combining an ancient legend with modern jazz, this tale will keep the reader entranced in its music.
