Rating: 
Summary: Very Lame
Review: Anachronism-filled boyhood adventure story packed
with improbable dialog. Political correctness
amuck.
Rating: 
Summary: Vivid Descriptions!
Review: Charles Johnson's Middle Passage is a masterpiece by all definitions. This story of a former slave who accidentally ends up on a slave ship is well woven and is full of gripping descriptions of the horrid conditions of life on a slave ship. All of Johnson's characters, despite their stereotypical air, come across as three dimensional humans, as opposed to hard-nosed sailors. However, one of this novels biggest draws, is also one of it's biggest shortcomings. Johnson's eloquence and amazing grasp of the English language entices readers with sights, sounds and smells, but they seem a bit much for the character of Rutherford Calhoun, a former slave and professional thief. Perhaps he would have been more believeable in third-person, speaking in New Orleans vernacular as opposed to the King's English. Similarly, Johnson's Calvinoesque use of allusions is a little confusing, but gets the point across. Definitely a must read!
Rating: 
Summary: I don't understand the detractors
Review: Charles Johnson's The Middle Passage is a brilliant book. Period. On the surface it is an oceanic adventure story in the high tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson and Herman Melville and it certainly lives up to those illustrious forbearers. But there is so much more than that involved.The book is also a rumination on race and the black experience, and an examination of what it means to be an African American in the modern age. Johnson accomplishes this in a work of historical fiction so artfully though that it never falls into the trap of heavy moralization that such themes are prone to. But even beyond that are the intertwined threads of Hegelian philosophy, Phenomenology, Buddhist epistemology, and manages to make a coherent philosophical argument without ever dealing overtly with the problems of philosophy. And then there are the Allmuseri. Johnson's fictional African Tribe is wondrous and a sign of a superlative imagination that stripped of the trappings of postmodern literature would be a joy in and of itself. I'm currently in the process of forcing all of my friends to read this book, and it has quickly become one of my favorites. I really don't see how anyone who truly enjoys great literature could fail to fall in love with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Linguistically Fictional, But Historically Interesting
Review: From the position of historical curiosity, Mr. Johnson's tale quenched many thirsts. Many of us slave-era inquisitors found the story to be quite fulfilling; especially with regard to what we believe to be actual incidents and conditions on slave ships. To write from the first-person (a freed slave from New Orleans)in the tone of an Ivy-Leaguer caught me quite by surprise. I could not picture this rough-shewn rouster commanding such a presence of the King's english. Depending on why you were reading the book, determined how it affected you. I thought it was truly exciting fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Wait a minute here, this is science fiction
Review: Haven't I met this god before? Aside from somewhere in Heinlein? I read this immediately after Sacred Hunger, two books my readers group has chosen. Both deal with down-and-outers' experience of the slave trade but there the similarity ends. This one is fun, the language juicy, the action intense. If you like Huck Finn, Tom Jones and all those boys, you'll like this bad boy redeemed and returning to society--but having just read Sacred Hunger, I felt a bit guilty--as if I'd gone to a musical comedy about the Holocaust. Guilty because I enjoyed it, of course. A pleasant surprise--Johnson's Isadora rang as true to life as his male characters. Read it by all means--but maybe a library copy
Rating:
Summary: Can you say " WORDY" ?
Review: Honestly, I don't understand how this book has received such glowing praises! It was so bad, I couldn't even finish it! I am OK with painting a picture, but 1 sentence commonly went on for 4 or 5 lines. Often, 1 sentence was an entire paragraph. Not sure where the fans went to school, but where I come from, that is bad writing! Usually, by the time I got to the end of a sentence (paragraph), I couldn't remember how the beginning started! Punctuation please!
Rating: 
Summary: A monument to political correctness!
Review: I come to this book late--ten years after it was written. Looking at the other reviews, the better of which make my points (i.e,, infuriating anachronisms, unlikely plot and indifferent grammar), I see that this must have been one of the first salvos to political correctness. A National Book Award? It's the subject that wins and damn the actual execution of the book. Ten years later we have excellent books to go to such as Bell's "Slaves in the Family" and the wonderful collection of slave narratives from the Library of Congress archieves, called "Remembering Slavery." Skip the Johnson, it's bad history and worse writing.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Insights!!
Review: I couldn't put this book down for long. I found it an easy read, pretty straight forward... However, looking deaper and studying Johnson's interpretation of life makes this book more than worthwhile. Johnson puts forth incredibly insightful views about life, theories about God, and the human ignorance of destroying a God. His views on life, theories put forth about God, and twisting fate creates a remarkable story that anyone should enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: The anachronisms drove me crazy!
Review: I found a copy of this National Book Award novel at a used book sale and eagerly opened it. I was willing to suspend belief enough to accept the conceit that a slave owner would educate his servant prior to emancipating him. However, the first person narrative by the former slave read like a college professor's memoir. The vocabulary was suitable for an omniscient point of view, but not credible in a so-called journal penned by a roguish former slave. He comments on his circumstances with allusions to Hegelian philosophy (Hegel died in 1831, but his works were known only in Europe for decades after. The time of this novel is set in 1830.) The protagonist refers to the concepts of manifest destiny and the missing link, both of which were unknown in 1830. When he mentions dime novels (did not exist in the nineteenth century) I put the book down in exasperation. I am not a historian, but believe that a moderately educated reader would cringe at a work that is so poorly edited. I am disappointed at the National Book Award committee for this selection.
Rating:
Summary: Holy baloney, people!
Review: I found this book really intersting, i had to read it for a book report and my teacher happens to know charles johnson. I think that this book is well written, you can really get a feel for what Rutherford is going through, i mean, if that was my only chance and i were him, i would take it in half a heart beat. If you only pay attention to what the events are, and how accurate the dates are, then you miss the whole plot and the beautiful writing that Charles uses. I can understand using and shifting actual events slightly to fit the story, to make it better, as he did. Who cares if Charles Darwin hadn't thought up the 'missing link' yet? or if a slave has been educated? By a minister who feels guilty about owing slaves? or if dime novels hadn't been invented yet? or the hegelian theory or philosify or what not wasn't well known in the 1830s? that shouldn't stop you from enjoying a good book! i would definatly recomend this book, the parallels between this man's life and Odicious (Spelling?) from Homer's Odyssey. It made a surpising but excellent ending. now, i will stop raving to let you read this book!
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