OVER THE LIP OF THE WORLD

McElroy (A Long Way from St. Louie, 1997, etc.) recounts her visit to Madagascar, where she hunts and gathers the island’s oral traditions, tapping both the journey and the stories for their sense of magic, their “ancient time.” The University of Washington poet went to the African island country to immerse herself in the fables, legends, myths, and song-poems of village folk artists, not as ethnography but out of love and appreciation. Most of the tales she retells are quick on their feet and short-lived and, not rarely, obscure in an untroubling way. As with most folklore, they contain elements that require listeners to suspend disbelief and accept a certain level of magic at play in order to garner the story’s gift, which often revolves around examples of bravery, morality, responsibility—the wisdom of ancestors. The stories also encompass origin myths, or pose as brief expressions of larger truths: why dogs chase cats, how a child should speak to an adult, how tricksters plot revenge, how places get their names, why and how spouses cheat on each other. Included as well is a sampler of contemporary Malagasy poetry. Cradling the stories is the filigreed narrative of McElroy’s journey through the island. She displays a fine talent for description—the wealth of colors in a clouded sky, “the suddenness of open space,” the bustle of a cattle market, “the waxy scent of dust” in a drowsy noontime square, the way “the sun, filtered through mist, washed the houses in bloodstreaks”—her words, like the landscape, lush to skeletal, allowing readers to call up each place and fix it in their mind’s eye. She also displays a tart humor about all the many vexations of travel, giving her memories an enviable buoyancy. A piquant glimpse into Malagasy storytelling, set to advantage by the kind of poised writing that makes one slow down, read carefully, savor. (Color and b&w photos)