Rodes Fishburne’s debut novel, Going To See the Elephant, could not help but remind me of some of the writings of the venerable Mark Twain. For some reason I think of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Primary character Slater Brown is the Connecticut Yankee, as much a fish out of water in San Francisco as Twain’s Yankee was in Arthur’s Court.
Slater Brown wants to be a writer, and becomes a journalist on his path to that end. The cast of characters he interacts with, and the situations he finds himself in, are hilarious, and yet familiar is their own special way. There is a touch of the reality to it all, and a bit of magical realism that flits in and out of the picture. And, then, there are the little parallels one sees if one looks for them: Mark Twain was a writer, Mark Twain was a journalist, and Mark Twain certainly found himself, both in life and in his stories, amidst the odd character and situation. So, is Slater Brown a little like Mark Twain, or is author Rodes Fishburne as little like him. Each reader will have to decide for themselves as they traverse this fine first novel. -Deal
