Myths, some more religious than others, appear to be
essential to human existence. They serve to explain the origin of various
societies and often are the source of values and behavioral norms. Most have important
supernatural elements that elevate such stories above the commonplace and
render them seemingly timeless.
Artists, seeking to give their work and thus themselves a
transcendent quality, often anchor their efforts in myth. One thinks, for
instance, of Richard Wagner basing what he considered his masterpiece – the Ring
Cycle operas – in Norse legend. And James Joyce appropriating Homer’s epic to
give “Ulysses” a framework and a name that serves to place the book in a more
universal context than early 20th century Dublin.
Then there’s T.S. Eliot who identified Tiresias, a leading prophet
in Greek mythology, as the most important voice in his poem “The Waste Land.”
All of which brings me to contemporary American author Wayétu
Moore, who has apparently decided that Liberia, her distant homeland, needs a
foundation myth that she provides in her debut novel, “She Would Be King.” Scheduled
for released in hardcover in September 2018. Moore, in interviews, has
described it as “a novel of African magical realism.”
