I admire novels that can so seamlessly blend supernatural elements with the real world to give a new view. In “Creatures of Passage” factors such as hauntings, shapeshifting, the afterlife and psychic powers are presented as entirely natural states of being which are part of these characters' everyday reality. They are represented with as much weight as difficult concrete issues such as alcoholism, poverty, drug abuse, child abuse and racial inequality. By doing so Morowa Yejide conveys the powerful sense and viewpoint of a disenfranchised community while also relating an extremely compelling and creative story. The novel is set in the late 1970s and at its centre is Nephthys Kinwell who provides a form of taxi service in Washington DC. However, her passengers don't summon her with an app or hail her by the roadside. Instead she senses how they are at a volatile place and in need so she drives them from one place to the next. At the same time, she's burdened with the loss of her twin brother who was killed in a racist attack and she continuously drinks from a hip flask. When she gets an unexpected visit from her great-nephew Dash, she discovers there might be a way to save this boy from a dire fate that's been foretold and reconnect with her lost sibling Osiris. Along the way we meet a number of her distressed passengers and learn about a twisted individual who has been persistently preying on vulnerable children in the community. It's an extremely solemn and disquieting tale whose wondrous elements build their own logic to give an utterly unique perspective.
Small details such as how the names of places are described convey how these characters are part of America but feel separate from it. For instance, states are never simply named but are presented as the “Kingdom of Maryland” or the “Kingdom of Alaska”. This emphasises the sense that these are lands that have been colonized and it's described early in the novel how Nephthys' familial territories of the Gullah people has been permanently lost. Throughout the novel there's a persistent sense of how communities from the past have dwindled and that in the future there will be more marginalization: “there would be latter-day nationalists and citizen circles and patriots, who from the forgotten fiefdoms of the territories heard the claxon bells of an orange-skinned king. And they would clamor ever louder to end the bloodlines of others to stem the end of their own.” So the characters of this story exist in a present which straddles this line between a past and future where they aren't a part of the country's dominant narrative. Therefore it's meaningful how Yejide presents the way they dwell in a liminal space with their own beliefs and conception of reality which is separate from that of the larger nation.
While I appreciated these powerful elements and felt completely drawn into this tale, I had some issues with certain aspects of the novel. Often as soon as mysteries such as Osiris' death or the unspeakable thing which Dash witnessed were presented the narrative explicitly details what happened. So at times the author over-explains parts which could have been simply referenced and more subtly referred to. I feel like it could have been more powerful if an understanding of these traumatic events were conveyed gradually. For instance, the way in which the ghost of a white girl exists in the trunk of Nephthys' car making subtle noises throughout the other characters' journeys had a more potent cumulative effect. Also I was less convinced by a character named Red's story which felt somewhat rushed and seemed more for the benefit of the overall plot than giving integrity to the sense of guilt he possesses. But these are relatively small quibbles I had with the book as in general I was very moved by the atmospheric and uncanny elements of the story. I especially admired the vengeful celestial journey of Osiris and the way in which Nephthys' niece Amber lives a kind of fairy tale existence tending large vegetables in the moonlight. Overall, reading this novel is a striking and memorable experience.
