Synopsis
In the years just after the American Revolution, London was the unlikely refuge for thousands of black Americans who had fought for the British in exchange for a promise of freedom. Incomparable World is their story, an unconventional debut novel that follows the adventures of three African Americans who have escaped their master's lash only to find themselves outcast once again-but this time on the harsh streets of London's West End. After the British defeat, Buckram, Georgie George, and William Supple sail to London, preferring to attempt a new life there than face possible recapture and a return to slavery. Penniless, without any prospects for employment, and treated as outsiders by British society, they are forced into a life of hustling and petty crime. Their only hope for escape, Georgie George manages to convince them, is an outrageous robbery that would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Full of vivid prose and accurate period detail, Incomparable World is a rich historical thriller that reveals a forgotten chapter of American history.
Reviews
A hectic, often compelling first novel set in a decidedly exotic (and violent) world. Martin, a British journalist, wrings considerable drama from a little-studied element of the American Revolution, when blacks, many of them former slaves and some only recently arrived from Africa, were recruited as soldiers by both sides, playing key roles in several campaigns. In departing, the British offered transport to any black man who could prove that he had fought for the King. Even so, England proved little more accepting of the soldiers than America had been, and the result was a large, embattled, and destitute black population in London. Martin focuses on the fates of three ex-soldiers there: Georgie, a mysterious con man who quickly becomes an influential thief; Buckram, an ex-cavalryman reduced to begging; and William, who makes a slender living on the stage. The authors portrait of the grim underside of late 18th-century London is detailed, grisly, and convincing: the whores, hustlers, thieves, and assassins who populate that feculent underworld are all vividly depicted. William, yearning to rescue the wife and children he left behind in New York, and Buckram, hopelessly in love with a young black woman dedicated to fighting for her race, are tough, complex figures. Georgie, however, remains an enigma, and his yearning (to live in a free black city) is never explained. Much of the slender plot has to do with Georgie's shrewd attempt to swindle a loathsome and very wealthy American slaver, which leads to a climax in the US embassy that mixes guffaws and gore. Each of the three men gets something of what hes desired. But it's for the robust portrait of the horrors of slavery in 18th-century America, and of the sufferings of the down-and-out in London, that Martin's narrative lingers. Despite a plot that often leaps when it should walk, and some patches of too-exuberant prose: an impressive debutangry, vigorous, and moving. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
An engagingly slapstick but unfocused debut from a London journalist gains most of its interest from its setting: black London of the 1780s. Having fought for their freedom on the British side during the American Revolution, ex-slaves Buckram, Georgie George and William Supple are promised pensions but instead find dire poverty and misery on the West End. When the novel opens, hapless protagonist Buckram has just been released from jail, having been caught in one of Georgie's habitual bungled schemes. Back on the street, Buckram soon finds himself drawn into more shady business, distributing black pornography, another of hustler Georgie's ideas. "His was an incomparable world," Martin writes of Georgie. "His passion was in having the time of his life and no one could slight his desire"?perhaps the only sane reaction to a world in which he finds himself a victim everywhere. The kicker comes when Georgie involves all three men in the grandest caper of their lives: a scheme to swindle American slave-traders by posing to the consuls at the American embassy as African potentates. In awkward contrast to the madcap aspects of Buckram's tale, Martin draws pathos from the squalor of the poor man's London and the plights of exiles like Supple, who pines for his wife and children in America. With often anachronistic dialogue and attitudes, Martin's romping adventure story succeeds best as the late-20th-century dream of what it was like to be black in a time that turns out not to have been much different from ours.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
After the American Revolutionary War, blacks who could prove they fought with the British were evacuated with the troops. Among them were Buckram and Georgie, the protagonists of Martin's intriguing if not wholly successful debut. Relegated to the slums of London, Georgie becomes King of the Beggars, fomenting illegal money-making schemes in which Buckram participates. Buckram serves two years in jail for one petty crime, but his only choice upon release is to trust Georgie again. Their next scheme gains Buckram enough money and dignity to leave the slums behind. Martin's characters are not fully developed, and an overabundance of minor figures leads to confusion. Real people appear to be mentioned to impress, serving mainly to show the contrast between the educated and the illiterate, and the British slang will be unfamiliar to American readers. But Martin's debut about a little-known period of African American history reads quickly, is well researched, shows interesting depth, and proves him a writer to watch. For larger fiction collections.?Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
First-novelist Martin sheds light on a little-known slice of history in this tale of escaped slaves who joined British forces during the American Revolution. Promised passage to Jamaica, Nova Scotia, or Britain for their service, many found themselves in another kind of bondage, living in London as outcasts and beggars. Three comrades from the colonies--illiterate Ostler Buckram, family man William Supple, and man of God Neville Franklin--are bound to the fortunes of wheeler-dealer Georgie George, who makes his way by means up to and including murder. Buckram dreams of Africa, William dreams of his wife and sons in New York, and Neville's dreams have ended, when a final grand scheme of Georgie's parts them. Although a love affair that surmounts class differences strains credibility, this is energetic and vivid historical fiction, evoking a time and a place and people wrongly used. Michele Leber
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