complex or unknown things through more familiar things. Look, for instance, at the narrator's description of grief: “Grief was the mule that brought our memories on its back” (47). The narrator and his companions are mourning Solibo's death, but their grief becomes useful, for it brings back memories of the person they have lost.

Like a mule, this grief carries those memories on its back, bearing the weight of them while allowing the mourners to examine and share those memories. Other examples of metaphor include calling Doudou-Ménar a “Tigress” (56) and describing her as “ready to ignite” (50). These metaphors are rich and interesting, and they add unexpected yet appropriate images to the story.

Speaking of images, vivid imagery is found all the way through Chamoiseau's tale. When the narrator and his companions are detained by the Chief Sergeant, the narrator vividly explains,

We stand still, more stopped than in a photo frozen in the sweat of life's worst moments (50).

There can be no doubt of how still these people are—nor how terrified. Look, too, at the description of the Chief Sergeant as he begins to examine the scene of the crime:

The Chief Sergeant metamorphosed. The wings of his nose fluttering, wrinkles arched around his lips, belly tucked in, back held straight by an invisible lead thread, he threw us oh Lord! a look which is better left unmentioned (51).

We can see him in our imaginations, can't we? We can picture every detail.

Chamoiseau also uses point of view as a literary device, especially shifts in point of view. While he himself enters the story as a character and narrator and tells much of it from his own perspective, he frequently puts down his first-person point of view to allow others to speak. The story begins with a police report, for instance, in stiff, official language. It includes stories directly recounted by other characters as they reminisce about Solibo's character and life.

We read transcriptions of police interviews and interrogations, dialogues between characters, and a list of witnesses (that serves a bit like a cast list). We hear the interior thoughts of other characters, like the Chief Sergeant and Chief Inspector, a technique that is quite unusual in a book largely told in the first person. Yet all these shifting points of view and literary forms broaden the story. We are allowed to examine the events and characters from many different perspectives, each of which captures a part of the tale that would otherwise have been missed.

Indeed, Chamoiseau packs Solibo Magnificent with literary interest, making his story and its characters come alive in the minds of his readers in creative and delightful ways.