Rating: 
Summary: Much Better than I expected
Review: It goes without saying that slavery and the kidnapping of millions of people from Africa was an unmitigated tragedy. A crime against humanity with few parallels in the long and sordid history of the human race, it would seem commonsensical that only an ignoramus or violent racist could write a work about the slave trade that could be called a comedy. Where Charles Johnson is concerned, common sense needs to cast aside. In his short novel Johnson is able to shows full horror of the slave trade in such a fashion that the reader can not make light of it for even a moment-the novel is partially about a slave rebellion and its consequences-but the cast of principals are so utterly strange, their behavior and dialogue so funny, that side splitting laughter is very often the only reasonable response.
A lecherous and vagabond ex-slave; an overly refined and educated free women of color with a proclivity collect dogs and cats missing limbs; a drunken sailor with a foul mouthed parrot who prepares food best described as stomach trouble with fat on it; a ship officer with psychopathic abilities of total recall; a buggering ship's captain whose short stature is further insulted by the fact his hideously ugly wife is in the habit of picking her nose during love making and who compensates for this by attempting to spread the manifest destiny of the United States to every corner of the globe and bragging about his cannibalism in polite company. Set on a back drop first of New Orleans and then upon a slave ship, and narrated by the indomitable Rutherford Calhoun-who has the bad fortune of running afoul of a Creole gangster and then stowing away upon a slave ship he believes to be a Mississippi riverboat-the above mentioned lecherous and vagabond ex-slave, this work ranks with the best novels that aspire towards the mantra of "The Great American Novel." This may sound hyperbolic but it is written with utter seriousness-this is truly a fine book.
To go on to further descriptions of characters or events in the novel would be to deprive the reader of the opportunity seeing the utter strangeness and fun of the novel unfold. An utterly evil thing to do.
Rating: 
Summary: National Book Award?????
Review: It has taken me way too long to finish this novel and I've never been more thrilled to get to the end of a book! "Middle Passage" is the story of a wayward freed slave in 1830's New Orleans. Rutherford stows away, unknowingly, on a ship set for Africa in search of slaves and treasures. After purchasing a tribe of Africans and the God they worship, the ship sets sail for its return to America. The slaves orchestrate a mutiny and take control of the ship. The crew suffers severe injuries at the hands of the rebelling Africans. The ship suffers even worse damage from a storm. The captain kills himself, unable to face his American investors after losing control of his ship and its loot. There's much more killing, and maiming, and flesh eating, and vomiting and bleeding. Then, the weather battered ship sinks but Rutherford and the ship's cook are rescued by a passing boat. They return to New Orleans...Rutherford tells the story via journal entries. The author stays true to the language of the period, an award winning feat for the writer but dreadfully laborious and dull for this reader. This is the second novel I've read by Charles Johnson and I've concluded that this author just doesn't do it for me. I found the novel required too much effort and didn't provide nearly enough payoff. Can't recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: National Book Award?????
Review: It has taken me way too long to finish this novel and I've never been more thrilled to get to the end of a book! "Middle Passage" is the story of a wayward freed slave in 1830's New Orleans. Rutherford stows away, unknowingly, on a ship set for Africa in search of slaves and treasures. After purchasing a tribe of Africans and the God they worship, the ship sets sail for its return to America. The slaves orchestrate a mutiny and take control of the ship. The crew suffers severe injuries at the hands of the rebelling Africans. The ship suffers even worse damage from a storm. The captain kills himself, unable to face his American investors after losing control of his ship and its loot. There's much more killing, and maiming, and flesh eating, and vomiting and bleeding. Then, the weather battered ship sinks but Rutherford and the ship's cook are rescued by a passing boat. They return to New Orleans... Rutherford tells the story via journal entries. The author stays true to the language of the period, an award winning feat for the writer but dreadfully laborious and dull for this reader. This is the second novel I've read by Charles Johnson and I've concluded that this author just doesn't do it for me. I found the novel required too much effort and didn't provide nearly enough payoff. Can't recommend this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Trials and tribulations
Review: Middle Passage is a realistic account of the trails at sea onboard the slave ship called the Republic in the 1830's. The main character is a former thief named Rutherford Chalhoun. To escape a mobbster named Papa who forces him to marry his friend named Isadora, he stowes away aboard the ship Republic.Rutherford learns the uilmate price for his abandonment of his responabilities. He deals with slavery, mutiny, and the image of his father which in the end change him a more caring and aware person because he learned a lot about someone he didn't know very well throughout the voyage, himself.
Rating:
Summary: Middle Passage
Review: Middle Passage is an excellent choice for a novel if you truly want to get lost in the story. It is written by Charles Johnson, and it takes place in the 1830's. It is about a recently freed slave named Rutherford Calhoun, and his problems in life, and in his home of New Orleans. He needs to get away from a woman, and his debt collectors, so he decides to hop on a ship that will be away for a quarter of a year. Little does he know that getting on that ship would turn out to give him more trouble than he had back home, for it is a slave clipper headed to Africa to pick up slaves. Now, read the book to find out what happens!
Rating:
Summary: Middle Passage: More Than Just Slavery
Review: Middle Passage is an exciting novel that isn't just about slavery; it is a very detailed account of the conditions aboard a slave ship of the 1830's and a look at the thoughts Rutherford, a freed black slave. It's a nice mix of serious ideas and comedy interlaced with very graphic descriptions of a mutiny attempt and the long, harsh voyage between New Orleans and Africa. If you like adventure, detail, and an interesting plot, you will probably like this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Methinks the slave matriculated unto Oxford or Cambridge
Review: Mr. Johnson can definitely string words together with punch and verve -- no question.
But while I relish the opportunity to surrender logic and suspend disbelief while reading a work of fiction, I cannot do so when the narrator or protagonist lacks authenticity or credibility.
The spectre of slaves who speak not like the common man, but rather like PhD candidates in English literature, weighs heavily upon this work. As it turns out, this apple of incredulity is bad enough to spoil the entire barrel.
Final verdict? Great prose, poor design.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but that ending...
Review: My book group just read this novel. We admired the taut, wonderful writing and the enormously graphic story of Calhoun and the sailors. Johnson is able to capture what it must have been like to be on board that old ship. What I had a problem with though was the hopelessly romantic ending that completed the story. Do Johnson's works always end on such an optomistic note? The book is gritty, and the fairytale ending just didn't play to me. From this first exposure, I will be tempted to read more of Johnson's prose.
Rating:
Summary: Rutherford Calhoun comes full circle
Review: Perhaps who ever did the review for Amazon.com should read the book again. Rutherford Calhoun does not become the captain's cabin boy, he becomes the cook's helper. He does not discover "to his shock and horror" that the vessel he stows away on is a slave ship since he already knew that from his conversation with the drunken cook in a tavern on shore. What he does learn that shocks him is that on a previous voyage the captain had eaten the cabin boy. Another statement that interested me was one of the promotional quotes in the front of the book, "MIDDLE PASSAGE IS AN EXAMPLE OF TRIUMPHANT INDIVIDUALISM .... Johnson's novel is a reason for celebration." - George F. Will. During the voyage, Rutherford learned that "if you hoped to see shore, you must devote yourself to the welfare of everyone ..." Not only Rutherford, but Squibb, the cook, learned this. Some like the captain did not, but then he ended up at the bottom of the ocean. At one point, Rutherford is describing the Allmuseri, the Africans taken on board as slaves, "Their notion of 'experience', I learned, held each man utterly responsible for his own happiness or sorrow, for the emptiness of his world or its abundance, even for his dreams and his entire way of seeing ..." Perhaps this is what George Will liked, but later Rutherford says of the Africans, "... Tribal behavior so ritualized, seasoned, and spiced by the palm oil, the presence of others it virtually rendered the single performer invisible - or, put another way, blended them into an action so common the one and many were as indistinguishable as ocean and wave." The amazing thing about the book to me, is that for Rutherford Calhoun everything comes full circle. Everything he ran away from comes back to haunt him, and he has to deal with all of it.He survives and learns from it all. He is a different person at the end. It was also quite interesting how the Africans were changed by their exposure to the Whites, the brutal treatment they were subjected to and their reaction to it. Not surprisingly, the weakest Africans responded in the worst way, but even the best of the Africans were affected. Not the message George Will would like to read, I'm afraid. The treatment by Charles Johnson of the mutiny by the Africans and its aftermath was incredible on many levels. There were permanent consequences for everyone, and although the Africans "won", there were really no winners, only losers. Johnson's vivid, realistic and graphic descriptions throughout the book pulled no punches. If you have a weak stomach, you probably don't want to read this book. The descriptions of pain, suffering, illness, death and dying were very powerful. There were some parts of the book that didn't work for me very well. First, I find it hard to believe that even a desperate black man would stowaway on a slave ship in 1830. Of course, the whole story is based on this happening. Secondly the business of the mysterious cargo is used for a crucial part of Rutherford's having to face what he has left on shore, but after that we are left hanging about its significance and eventual fate - a bit unsatisfying. All in all, I enjoyed this book and recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Rutherford Calhoun comes full circle
Review: Perhaps who ever did the review for Amazon.com should read the book again. Rutherford Calhoun does not become the captain's cabin boy, he becomes the cook's helper. He does not discover "to his shock and horror" that the vessel he stows away on is a slave ship since he already knew that from his conversation with the drunken cook in a tavern on shore. What he does learn that shocks him is that on a previous voyage the captain had eaten the cabin boy. Another statement that interested me was one of the promotional quotes in the front of the book, "MIDDLE PASSAGE IS AN EXAMPLE OF TRIUMPHANT INDIVIDUALISM .... Johnson's novel is a reason for celebration." - George F. Will. During the voyage, Rutherford learned that "if you hoped to see shore, you must devote yourself to the welfare of everyone ..." Not only Rutherford, but Squibb, the cook, learned this. Some like the captain did not, but then he ended up at the bottom of the ocean. At one point, Rutherford is describing the Allmuseri, the Africans taken on board as slaves, "Their notion of 'experience', I learned, held each man utterly responsible for his own happiness or sorrow, for the emptiness of his world or its abundance, even for his dreams and his entire way of seeing ..." Perhaps this is what George Will liked, but later Rutherford says of the Africans, "... Tribal behavior so ritualized, seasoned, and spiced by the palm oil, the presence of others it virtually rendered the single performer invisible - or, put another way, blended them into an action so common the one and many were as indistinguishable as ocean and wave." The amazing thing about the book to me, is that for Rutherford Calhoun everything comes full circle. Everything he ran away from comes back to haunt him, and he has to deal with all of it.He survives and learns from it all. He is a different person at the end. It was also quite interesting how the Africans were changed by their exposure to the Whites, the brutal treatment they were subjected to and their reaction to it. Not surprisingly, the weakest Africans responded in the worst way, but even the best of the Africans were affected. Not the message George Will would like to read, I'm afraid. The treatment by Charles Johnson of the mutiny by the Africans and its aftermath was incredible on many levels. There were permanent consequences for everyone, and although the Africans "won", there were really no winners, only losers. Johnson's vivid, realistic and graphic descriptions throughout the book pulled no punches. If you have a weak stomach, you probably don't want to read this book. The descriptions of pain, suffering, illness, death and dying were very powerful. There were some parts of the book that didn't work for me very well. First, I find it hard to believe that even a desperate black man would stowaway on a slave ship in 1830. Of course, the whole story is based on this happening. Secondly the business of the mysterious cargo is used for a crucial part of Rutherford's having to face what he has left on shore, but after that we are left hanging about its significance and eventual fate - a bit unsatisfying. All in all, I enjoyed this book and recommend it.
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