Valente, Catherynne M.: The Habitation of the Blessed
The Habitation of the Blessed (2010)
Written by: Catherynne M. Valente
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 269 (Trade Paperback)
Series: Book One
Why I Read It: while I haven't read EVERYTHING Valente's ever written (she's got a ton of short fiction and poetry out there!), I do try my hardest to get my hands on her novels. I bought this the instant it came out, but held off on the chance it might win the February Book Club selection. When it didn't, you would've thought I would've gobbled it down right away, but I didn't, because when it comes to Valente, I have to be in the right frame of mind to read her work, and the frantic pace of the holiday season is certainly not the time for the right frame of mind. Now that the holidays are officially over, I felt better about picking it up. Only, the story of my reading it is actually a funny (maybe?) story...
The premise: ganked from Amazon.com: This is the story of a place that never was: the kingdom of Prester John, the utopia described by an anonymous, twelfth-century document which captured the imagination of the medieval world and drove hundreds of lost souls to seek out its secrets, inspiring explorers, missionaries, and kings for centuries. But what if it were all true? What if there was such a place, and a poor, broken priest once stumbled past its borders, discovering, not a Christian paradise, but a country where everything is possible, immortality is easily had, and the Western world is nothing but a dim and distant dream?
Brother Hiob of Luzerne, on missionary work in the Himalayan wilderness on the eve of the eighteenth century, discovers a village guarding a miraculous tree whose branches sprout books instead of fruit. These strange books chronicle the history of the kingdom of Prester John, and Hiob becomes obsessed with the tales they tell. The Habitation of the Blessed recounts the fragmented narratives found within these living volumes, revealing the life of a priest named John, and his rise to power in this country of impossible richness. John's tale weaves together with the confessions of his wife Hagia, a blemmye--a headless creature who carried her face on her chest--as well as the tender, jeweled nursery stories of Imtithal, nanny to the royal family. Hugo and World Fantasy award nominee Catherynne M. Valente reimagines the legends of Prester John in this stunning tour de force.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: This is one of those books that's difficult to spoil, especially depending on what you've read about it. So I won't spoil anything that can't be found in various summaries found on the internet (I'm looking at you, Barnes & Noble!), but if you're paranoid and/or like me and don't like knowing much of anything about a book before you get it, skip to "My Rating."
Thumbs Up: As always, Valente's pose is beautiful to read, because she always has descriptions that are the last thing in the world that you'd think of, but make perfect sense in context. Granted, what I'm about to quote isn't nearly context, but it's a delightful sentence to behold: I ate the sail one night and dreamed of honey. The stars overhead hissed at me like cats. (page 18)
And here, a delightful metaphor that rings of beauty and truth:
Children, you must understand, are monsters. They are ravenous, ravening, they lope over the countryside with slavery mouths, seeking love to devour. Even when they find it, even if they roll in it and gorge themselves, still it will never be enough. Their hunger for it is greater than any heart to satisfy. You mustn't think poorly of them for it -- we are all monsters that way… (page 94).
A poignant little moment, which I think sums up nicely our disillusionment of the world and the need for something greater:
I wonder if the world is not very much poorer than we hoped, and smaller. There are so few places left to look where anything might be kept secret. (page 141)
Secret, of course, can easily be translated to wonder.
There's also bits of humor that will slip right on by if you aren't paying attention. What I wanted to quote is too long, but don't expect that just because you're reading Valente that she's supposed to be SERIOUS ALL THE TIME. Oh no. She gives the reader quite a few chuckles.
I really appreciated the way she turns the Christian religion on its head a bit, especially when it comes to the creation story. Oh, the Christian myth is so heavily used in this book in that we've got not just one but two characters who are struggling mightily to make sense of this land they've found in light of their faith, their Bible and their God. I particularly loved Hagia's interpretation of the Temptation of Eve:
Your Eve was wise, John. She knew that Paradise would make her mad, if she were to live forever with Adam and know no other thing but strawberries and tigers and rivers of milk. She knew they would tire of these things, and each other. They would grow to hate every fruit, every stone, every creature they touched. Yet where could they go to find any new thing? It takes strength to live in Paradise and not collapse under the weight of it. It is every day a trial. And so Eve gave her lover the gift of time, time to the timeless, so that they could grasp at their happiness. (page 63)
Seriously, such takes on the creation story that we all know so well is really what provides a certain underlying tension to the book, because John is convinced that he's amongst demons and then during the course of the novel begins to wonder if he hasn't found Eden after all. The evidence is staggering, especially when he discovers Babel and learns the meaning of it amongst the Pentexorians.
And the debate, the endless religious debate! John tries over and over to explain his God and his Word and his Christ and his beliefs, only to come up against creatures who believe as strongly as he does about their own religions, and have a very wry way of looking at his arguments. This passage stood out in particular: I am not a demon. We love our religions, John, just as you do, and it is such a pleasure to convert a friend to one's own faith, isn't it? But I think you will find few buyers here, when your story needs such work, being ignorant of more or less everything important in the history of the world. (page 138)
Because for all the debate and John's floundering explanations of his faith, never do these characters treat each other with gross disrespect. Fear, yes, as John exhibits over and over as he meets creatures he's convinced are demons, but never gross disrespect.
I loved the Abir. The clean slate of it all, and yet the impossibility of having to forget your previous life and move forward to a brand new one, to have to forget you knew people in a previous life at all. At first glance, it might seem really silly and nonsensical, but the way its portrayed in the book and the depth of feeling the characters have regarding this sacred tradition is what makes it work, what makes it magical.
Lastly, the trees. Oh, the wonder and magic of the trees. I loved every description of them, but my favorite I think was the last described in the book, the one sapling "whose stem was of silver, whose leaves curled deep and blue, lapis dark as eyes, veined in quartz flaws. Tiny fruits of white opal hung glittering in from its slender branches, and the moon washed it in christening light." (page 251)
Thumbs Down:
I really don't have much to say for this section, except for a few things: taking a month's long break at the middle of the book did not heighten my reading experience, and I don't recommend doing so if I were you. I explain the reasons for my break below.
That aside, I found John's first chapter to be surreal and difficult to grasp, because I was never sure when Valente was being literal and when she was using metaphor. Once I got that straight, I was fine. Mostly. :)
Lastly, the ending was a bit of a whirlwind, and not wholly in a bad way. Rather, in the wait, that's what's going on?!?!?! kind of way. Of course, it's the kind of ending that makes you really look forward to the next installment, to really see how the story's progressing and why it's progressing that way, and certainly, Valente drops all kinds of clues and hints that John's reign was interesting, to say the least. Still, I was a little flustered as I reached the end, because it's not until the end that we really finally understand where this story is going.
My Rating
Like, Not Love: This rating may have been different if I hadn't taken a month-long break from the book. Remember me saying my reading of this was a funny story? I started the book was immediately sucked in. It was right before bed, and when I dreamt, I literally dreamt of Valente's prose (high praise, when an author's prose lingers and infiltrates my dreaming). Then I hit a chapter I had a horrible time focusing on, and I never found my focus. This was in February, when focus was a problem ANYWAY, and I was anxious about reading our book club selection in time (in hindsight, I needn't have worried), so I put this aside until I was ready to pick it up again. And when I did, I still wasn't convinced it was the right time, but gave it a go regardless. And was sucked in and sorry to see it end. The good news is, this is the first of a trilogy, so I'll get to immerse myself in Valente's special brand of wonder and weird twice more in terms of this world, and that'll be interesting, because I wasn't sure where this single volume was leading to, let alone where the trilogy is going to end. I look forward to the journey of finding out.
In terms of recommendations, I think everyone who reads Valente needs to be in the right mood to read her fiction. I said she has a special brand of wonder and weird, and she DOES: she doesn't rely on traditional fantasy images so much as subverts them, or finds imagery and creatures who are all but forgotten in today's fantasy literature. Reading Valente is never like coming home to the familiar, and if you pick up this book and you're looking for a fast read, but it down slowly and wait for a time when you need a book to sink your teeth into. Because that's the best way to read and digest Valente's work. This is a good book (probably better if one doesn't take a month-long break like the moron I am), but it's not my favorite of hers, not yet. That may change as I read the upcoming volumes in this trilogy.
Buy or Borrow: Buy if you're a fan of her work, borrow if you've not read her before. Trust me. :)
Cover Commentary: I remember there being controversy about this cover, but never paid attention because the version I got matched my memory of what I'd seen online. Yet there was a lot of Race!Fail! talk about this cover, and thanks to a little Google research, I learned why. THIS is the original. Compare that to the version I use for my review (which is what was published), and it's no wonder there was an outcry. The woman in the background was obviously not rendered as described in the book, and the font work and design is just butt-ugly to my eyes and far too busy regardless. The ACTUAL cover art is far more elegant, gets the skin color right, and just looks classier. This is a case for cover art WOOT updates!
Next up: Darkship Thieves by Sarah A. Hoyt