Tainting a good story with undercooked critical theory

Your response to this novel’s title, and specifically the word ‘postcolonial’, is likely to determine your subsequent enjoyment of the book. Because a novel that points knowingly at both its genre and its critical stance from before you even open it is making the reader certain guarantees. You know it’s going to have some level of metanarrative. You know it’s going to draw on postcolonial theory. For a lot of readers, that knowledge is enough to make the idea of reading the novel a yes or a no.