Jonestown

by Wilson Harris

Wilson Harris’ 1996 novel Jonestown charts the attempt of a survivor of the mass suicide and killings at Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, to come to terms with his survival and the others’ deaths. While the events of November 18, 1978 form the background of the novel, Harris is not writing a history of Jonestown, Jim Jones, or even the fictional survivor, Francisco Bone. Instead, he is looking through what the narrator calls a Dream-book: “I feared to write in – and be written by – a demanding book that asserts itself in Dream and questions itself from time to time (even as I question the meaning of survival) as you will see as you read”. In the course of the novel, Francisco Bone will move through his past to explore how he came to be associated with Jim Jones, the connections of Jones to Guyana, and the circumstances surrounding his salvation in the events in Jonestown that November.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Cults, 20th Century, Magical Realism, Religion, Psychology

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Born in Guyana in 1921 and based in England since 1959, Wilson Harris is one of the most original novelists and critics of the twentieth century. His writings, which include poems, numerous essays and twenty-four novels, provide a passionate and unique defense of the notion of cross-culturalism as well as a visionary exploration of the interdependence between history, landscape and humanity. In 2010 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

in some ways even denser and more hermetic than the other harris i've read, but this one provides concessions of a sort to the reader in the form of passages that seem to be in part explaining what his project is here, for example these from the introductory 'letter' written by the main character to harris himself:

"In my archetypal fiction I call Jim Jones Jonah Jones. All of the characters appearing in the book are fictional and archetypal. In this way I have sought to explore overlapping layers and environments and theatres of legend and history that one may associate with Jonestown."

"It is essential to create a jigsaw in which ‘pasts’ and ‘presents’ and likely or unlikely ‘futures’ are the pieces that multitudes in the self employ in order to bridge chasms in historical memory."

"Keys to the Void of civilization are realized not by escapism from dire inheritances, not by political glosses upon endemic tragedy, but by immersion in the terrifying legacies of the past and the wholly unexpected insights into shared fates and freedoms such legacies may offer. In the death of politics (however ritually or conventionally preserved in the panoply of the state) may gestate a seed of re-visionary, epic theatre rooted in complex changes in human and animal nature …"

so the project doesn't resemble a conventional or realist novel form concerned with things like plot or the psychology of characters, and it has little to do with the historical facts of jonestown. rather it seem to use jonestown as a jumping off point from which characters can embody and reenact various historical archetypes as a means to explore alternative historical pathways, or alternative futures, free from colonial conquest and domination(which jonestown is explicitly identified with):
"What is the meaning of history, what is meaning? It is null and void until one sifts varieties of prayer, some perverse, some desiring revenge for evils one has suffered, others steeped in non-intercourse with violence … Not easy to put! Except to say that a capacity prior to violence makes one see how tribal are pacts or institutions founded on coercion and conquest.
To glimpse this abhorrent tribalism is to begin to question all one’s premises and to look backwards into the mists of time for alternative creations, alternative universes, alternative parallels – so to speak – imbued with different weddings and marriages to reality. "

beyond that, i'm not really sure what to make of this. much of it is so densely packed with symbolism that i find it difficult to begin to get much out of it, but at the same time his whole project here and the gigantic sweep of it is fascinating, and there is an undeniable power to some of his images even when their larger purpose is unclear to me:

"The dying and the sick – assembled in South America from every race around the globe – lay on the floor of the hospital within the Shadows of the past and the future. They were masked actors of El Doradonne Utopia, a new Rome to be founded by apparitional Aeneas, or Lazarus ascending from the rubble of Troy; such founders were in my blood, and in Deacon’s blood, and in everyman’s blood within experimental nuclei of epic, resurrected consciousness."

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have got literally no idea what I just read 🥰 Quantum Fiction and celestial mathematics when I dropped the subject at GCSE are a fruitful combination

[Eamonn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of this book is fascinating: re-imagining the events of Jonestown as part of a long history of calamitous (and mysterious) falls of past civilizations in South America. But I didn't get far enough into it to judge if it's successful in this regard. The problem lies with the language of the book, in particular the non-linear narrative. The narrator expresses himself poetically, metaphorically, almost feverishly, as if in a kind of dream state, but unfortunately this is done with insufficient skill to allow me to follow any threads it may contain. Any intended underlying meaning remained vague to me. Other readers may have found it more accessible, but I found the text clumsy, overly complicated and difficult to read, and I gave up when I realised I wasn't getting anywhere.

Goodreads admin: there needs to be a zero-star review option for books you haven't completed.

[Manuel Abreu · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book will destroy any attempt at linear reading, and it's not for the faint of heart or those unfamiliar with harris' trickster shaman anansy work. but, if you do some preliminary research and get yourself acquainted with the vertiginous feeling of a nonlinear 'plot' that specifically proceeds by virtue of your own confusion, then you will get a lot of mileage here. the very notion of the predatory coherence of the rationalist european novel gets linked to its bleak underside, the cultic dehumanization of outsiders that results from zealotry and conquistadorial ego.

[Amos True · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are passages that are incredibly beautiful, and some very clever storytelling that kind of creeps up on you as you are bombarded with such an assortment of religious and cultural imagery. But I did think it would have benefited from a bit more editing. Maybe that means I just didn't get it, but I felt a bit the way I feel when I listen to free jazz for more than a couple of hours — I'm sure it's very brilliant, but I am not enjoying it after a certain point.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

This is so convoluted it’s unreadable in places. The concept is cool, but trudging through a “dream-book” that travels through time to make a few points about Jonestown feels like a waste of time.

[Rhonda Hankins]

I couldn’t follow this book at all and gave up after about 40 pages.