cover image HE SLEEPS

HE SLEEPS

Reginald McKnight, . . Holt, $23 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-4828-5

In this passionately written, thoughtfully conceived novel, McKnight (White Boys) portrays a man's confrontation with racial identity in its most elemental form. Bertrand Milworth, a young African-American anthropologist, moves to Senegal to complete research on myths and legends in village societies, leaving his white wife, Rose, behind in Colorado. A true babe in the woods, Bertrand rents a room in a house inhabited by a fiery young Senegalese couple and quickly finds himself tormented by his attraction to Kene and his resentment of her devious husband, Alaine. As his research falters amid worries about his failing marriage, Bertrand—an intellectual taught to view race solely as an abstraction—begins to view the question more viscerally. Through subtle excursions into Bertrand's past and vivid recreations of his disturbing dreams, McKnight brings his character's insecurities about race to the fore, particularly his anxiety about African-American women and penchant for white girlfriends. As his subconscious life encroaches on his daily waking existence, Bertrand begins to suspect that his alien identity in the village has put him in danger. Here, McKnight's language wonderfully evokes the sights and smells of the African landscape, transforming the dark terrain of his character's mind into a plot of intrigue and mystery. As its multiple layers thicken and converge, the narrative twists and turns, alternating perspectives and voices, spinning at times almost out of the author's control. McKnight's prose swings wildly between the blandly recognizable phrases of American slang in Bertrand's journal and his letters home, to the lyrical descriptions of his thoughts as his grip on reality slips. At times frustratingly opaque, McKnight's intricate plot remains gripping, and he constructs an illuminating tale about race, gender and our fragile sense of self. (Sept.)