Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
Like many people, I was introduced to Catherynne Valente’s work through the Orphan’s Tales duology, and hadn’t read anything else by her. I was warned that her other books are very different, and the warnings were right.
Palimpsest is a city that exists outside of our reality, and can only be accessed by the people of our world in the sleep that follows sex. The people who can access Palimpsest are marked by tattoos on their bodies, each tattoo a part of a map of Palimpsest. By having sex with each other, the people with tattoos are able to visit the place marked on the other’s skin. These people are called Immigrants, and are often looked upon with disdain by the citizens of Palimpsests, who are not human even when they look it. And they often aren’t. The book primarily follows the journeys of four Immigrants-Sei, November, Ludovico and Oleg-as each deals with a loss, and learns about Palimpsest and the other Immigrants.
I figure many an aspiring writer has picked up a book of Valente’s, read a bit, and then put it down in a fit of “I’ll never be that good” depression. Valente has some of the richest prose and most beautiful imagery I’ve encountered, and I’ve read a lot of books. That said, while I was interested in the four character’s personal journeys and the idea of a community joined by tattoos, I was mostly interested in Palimpsest and its people, and not as much everyone’s sex lives. Not that that was handled tackily. It’s just not my thing, whereas fascinating cities and worldbuilding are. As are magic tattoos.
Palimpsest is a city that exists outside of our reality, and can only be accessed by the people of our world in the sleep that follows sex. The people who can access Palimpsest are marked by tattoos on their bodies, each tattoo a part of a map of Palimpsest. By having sex with each other, the people with tattoos are able to visit the place marked on the other’s skin. These people are called Immigrants, and are often looked upon with disdain by the citizens of Palimpsests, who are not human even when they look it. And they often aren’t. The book primarily follows the journeys of four Immigrants-Sei, November, Ludovico and Oleg-as each deals with a loss, and learns about Palimpsest and the other Immigrants.
I figure many an aspiring writer has picked up a book of Valente’s, read a bit, and then put it down in a fit of “I’ll never be that good” depression. Valente has some of the richest prose and most beautiful imagery I’ve encountered, and I’ve read a lot of books. That said, while I was interested in the four character’s personal journeys and the idea of a community joined by tattoos, I was mostly interested in Palimpsest and its people, and not as much everyone’s sex lives. Not that that was handled tackily. It’s just not my thing, whereas fascinating cities and worldbuilding are. As are magic tattoos.