Mister Johnson (Time reading program special edition)

MISTER JOHNSON, perhaps the best of Joyce Cary's African novels, is about a man who fails to heed the reality all about him in favor of an illusory world of his own creation. Johnson is a Nigerian native; he comes to view the British colonial system, especially as represented by the incompetent road builder Rudbeck, through the prism of his African roots and experiences. Johnson tends not to filter things through the process of logical reasoning, but empirically through all his senses. The potential for disaster is great and is finally realized with the robbery and the subsequent murder he commits. Cary narrates the story in the present tense, which gives it a strong feel of immediacy. Johnson's delusions, from his total lack of understanding of his bride Bamu, who doesn't like him at all, though he doesn't realize it; his near worship of Rudbeck; and his even thinking he is above the law because "I king of all dem country" - a laughable self-deception if it didn't carry such frightening consequences, is sad and poignant. Despite being his own worst enemy, the reader can't help but sympathize with the ever singing, joyful, optimistic, Johnson.