I am not a scholar of mythology, I had only a passing acquiantance with Egyptian gods and goddesses when I had the pleasure of reading Creatures of Passage. But this genre-bending novel made me want to learn more as I read about twin siblings Osiris and Nephthys and their triumphs and tragedies in the Kingdom of Anacostia – a neighborhood in DC. Yejide mixes some elements of a magical tale with gritty realism, to superb results. This is one part ghost story, one part redemption / revenge tale, and one part folktale – and all of it is an empathetically told tale of grief and its aftermath. The story is told in five parts – you learn in the first section that these parts are named after the ways that humans (creatures of passage) can die, or pass over. The reader has the ability to explore each of these five modalities and the intersecting lives of various people who live in and around Anacostia, a historic African American neighborhood. The story is set in 1977, but the events of the main timeline are heavily influenced by the past.
Osiris and Nephthys are twins, but when the book begins in 1977 Osiris is dead and Nephthys is dealing with her sorrow primarily by drinking. She drives a mysterious cab that more or less selects its own passengers. She is removed from the only family she has left – a niece who, for a time, she raised almost as a daughter with her brother Osiris after his wife tragically died. However, after his death, Nephthys had trouble resolving the fact that her niece, gifted with the power to see death before it happens, was unable to identify more details and potentially stop the death of her father. This niece, Amber, is more or less a pariah in town – a sort of Bruno-like figure that is consulted for a morbid column in a local paper with predictions about who will die next but otherwise is not to be talked about in the community. As the story opens, Amber’s son, Dash, contacts Nephthys at the urging of the school nurse after he gets into a fight at school – and this sets in motion a complicated series of events. There is redemption, revelation, and revenge. Families are reunited, a serial pedophile in the community is revealed, and a community carries on.
This beautiful story is told in a lyrical fashion that I really enjoyed. It has many harsh moments – incidents of racist violence, the abuse of young children, and many mentions of suicide. These are handled with a great deal of care and are important for the story – but this book might not be for people who are sensitive to that sort of content. The characters hook you from the first chapter – their distinctive voice is alive in the text and so very compelling to read. I enjoyed the multiple narrators, even when repulsed by them. This isn’t light reading, but it’s bold and such strong writing – I’ll be looking for more from this author.