MixedBOMBMcKay’s commitment to creating truly marginal characters is extraordinary for the period, and the book will undoubtedly provide a rich text for contemporary theorists in a number of disciplines. Lafala’s captivity and travails dovetail with Christina Sharpe’s theorization of the hold, the shipped, and the wake. The fact that McKay (who was bisexual himself) includes openly queer, unpathologized characters is notable for the time, and may also account for his publishers’ reluctance to print the book. Still, there’s something that doesn’t work, things that don’t quite make sense—plot holes and discontinuities raise more questions than McKay is willing to answer ... ninety years on from its creation—its seams show, the novel’s gaps reveal the constructed nature of all that we assume to be natural and whole.
