Harold Bascom. Apata. (Portsmouth, N H : Heinemann, 1 986)
279 pp., paper.
Apata is subtitled: "The story of the reluctant criminal . " This more or
less sums u p the plot, for after page sixty-three, the hero ' s fortunes
plummet steadily, culminating in "the biggest manhunt ever seen" in the
colony of British Guiana, with Apata both predator and prey, alter
natively. With the unflinching pessimism of naturalism, Bascom traces
the life of Michael Rayburn Apata, a young Guianese with a brilliant
academic career ahead of him. The forces of heredity and en viron ment
conspire to destroy his chance for admission to King's College, prevent
him from m arrying the woman he loves, and limit him to dead-end j obs in
the i nterior. He is thrown out of school because he openly criticizes the
coloni al system. The brown-skinned mother of the woman he loves rejects
him as a prospective son-in-law because, "Beverly ent going to marry a
black skin, ugly thing like you! NEVER!" Sensing that his efforts to make
something of himself are doomed, Apata reflects: "It seems as though 'us
people' get quick recognition as criminals, especially if your skin is dark . .
. . Is it only when we become criminals they're prepared to take us
serious?"
Apparently in an effort to be taken seriously, Apata embarks on a crime
spree that leaves several men dead (most the result of police incom-
4 Explorations in Sights and Sou nds No. 10 (Summer 1 990)
petence, but some by his hand). I n the process, he becomes a legend of
sorts. People who have never met him brag that they were friends, and a
police officer named Calder sees Apata as a man who "has done
something that many Black men would do, given the guts, given the
motivation, given the anger. " What is odd, however, is that Apata never
seems particul arly courageo us, motivated, or angry.
Th omas De Quincey has argued that in order for the depiction of
murder to be other than coarse and vulgar, our sym pathy-in the sense of
com prehension, not approbation-must be not with the murdered person
but with the murderer, who affords readers a glimpse into the hell that his
passions have created. But Apata is a half-hearted murderer: he shoots a
man in the knee and leaves him in the woods to die (or maybe not) and
feels badly when policemen are killed during the purs uit. The novel
suggests that life ' s u nfairness must be blamed for Apata's actions.
Because of this, Apata remains elusive, while some of the secondary
characters are more compelling.
Bascom has a knack for vignettes. I n a few p ages he communicates the
anguish of Gerald Tross, Apata's best friend, when his father forces him
to abandon his dream s and return to the family farm. Even more striking
is a four-page sketch of Constable Boston who is transformed from
ineffectual cuckold to a local hero as a result of his part in the Apata
drama. When Corporal Stephens is strangled by a boa constrictor during
the manhunt, the episode has added significance because of the know
ledge that Stephens was Boston's rival in both the Hoop Village police
force and the bedroom. These character sketches as well as Bascom's
vibrant imagery, the touches of m agic realism, and the innovative
treatment of n arrative structure must ulti m ately carry the novel, for
Ap ata himself is rather prosaic, n either an gel nor demon , but merely " a
young m a n who p u t g o o d brains t o bad use."
-Lucy Wilson
Loyola Marymount University