Palimpsest

Excellent but slightly flawed.

Palimpsest is urban fantasy by two of the three most common meanings for the phrase. Half of it is set in a contemporary urban setting -- four, actually, with Sei's plot in Tokyo, November's in San Francisco, Oleg's in New York, and Ludovico's in Rome - and half is set in and completely and utterly about the fantastical city of Palimpsest. Its structure is convoluted -- though still simpler than the labyrinthine structure of Valente's previous work, the two-volumes of The Orphan's Tales - and its prose is dreamlike, distantly beautiful and gossamer-light despite the weight of metaphor attendant on every phrase. It is a work of beautiful yearnings, and clearly I've been infected by it.

It's not the sort of book that is suited for a wide audience - the prose is too poetic, the structure is too difficult, and the premise would earn it an NC-17 rating were this ever turned into a movie, even though most of the sex (and there is necessarily a lot of it) is practically fade-to-black. I didn't love it, despite being in its target audience (and having read Valente before), but I did admire the heck out of it and in retrospect I think it may have moved me deeply at the end.

But that question mark is why the book ultimately frustrated me. There was a great deal that I loved about the book. I loved how well Valente drew the four real-world cities and (more importantly) the strange isolated little burrows the four main characters inhabited in those cities; I loved even more the peculiar but very much character-reflective neighborhoods each of them inhabited in Palimpsest. I loved the city of Palimpsest itself, and the dark beauty Valente imbued it with; and deep down I got how it would be addictive. I even really enjoyed the structure, though I tend to have a better-than-average instinctive grasp of patterns, so I never once got lost.

But ultimately, even though I loved Valente's lyrical prose at the beginning of the novel, and even though I thought it absolutely the right sort of prose for a story of this sort, it distanced me from the muted tragedy inherent in the ending. One of the things I loved most about the previous Valente work I read (the two volumes of The Orphan's Tales) was the way she wove joy and tragedy together in every page. She does the same thing in Palimpsest by the end, but I didn't feel either emotion until I thought about the story afterwards, and I'm pretty sure that that disconnect was because of distance created by the prose.

As a flaw, that's a pretty minor one - after all, I feel the emotion NOW - but it is a flaw, and I wish with all my heart that I could have loved Palimpsest more.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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Ink and ink.

A dark, beautiful, highly erotic and absolutely delicious offering from Cat Valente. In this tale, four strangers stumble by hands and bodies into the dream-city of Palimpsest, led by the strange skin-map that marks the cities immigrants. As they fall more and more deeply in love with the city, and the city with them, so too the reader, compelled to remember those things that you too have lost, sought, and desired.

Think of it this way-- what if you were Alice, or Dorothy, and you left the magic land of your story. And then you discovered, suddenly, that by sleeping with a stranger and bearing a mark you could have it all back, in a city that would grow your own hearts desires within its districts?

Wouldn't you go, and wouldn't you crawl through as many beds as it took to get back?

And better-- told in Valente's beautiful, lyrical style, full of rich colors and rich characters, rent hearts and torn paper.

Crawl through these pages, and you'll see what I mean.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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This is an intriguing Twilight Zone like quest fantasy

Somewhere out there beyond the realm of the living or for that matter the dead is Palimpsest, a place you just don¿t simply get to. First you must believe it exists; then you hope for a miracle, though some might insist a curse, must occur. You still might not get there as there are many strange places out there beyond life and death. To find this city beyond all, following a major loss usually of a loved one and during the deepest of natural sleep after sex like none before or any afterward, will appear a tattooed map on the skin that seems to have come from no known source.<BR/><BR/>Four strangers wake up to the map and a binding need to find each other as they begin their quest: In Tokyo is Amaya Sei: in California is November; in New York is Oleg; and in his books is Ludovico. They are heading to the ghost train that will take them to Palimpsest and a realm filled with wonder, awe and perhaps what each seeks: someone to fill the loss in their respective souls.<BR/><BR/>This is an intriguing Twilight Zone like quest fantasy, but the quest is not some prophecy artifact to save a world from evil; instead it is an individual search to find what death recently took away and left behind in its wake loneliness and sorrow warped in grief. The quartet seems genuine even when they confront creatures that logically could not exist. The support cast before the journey, during the travel, and in the city also comes across real enough to make the heroes seem more complete. Though as always is the case with a Catherynne M. Valente tale (see IN THE CITIES OF COIN AND SPICE and IN THE NIGHT GARDEN) this parable of seeking to belong to someone is complex, and convoluted making for a difficult but ultimately poignant read.<BR/><BR/>Harriet Klausner

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Haunting and beautiful

Every page feels like a dream remembered. Be prepared to see things that are impossible and yet speak to your heart as the truth.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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A very sexy book!

Catherynne Valente is a beatiful writer! I loved this book! Her descriptions are wonderful, her characters colorful, the plot rich and sexy (figuratively and literally).

"Palimpsest" is a well deserved award winner.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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