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Jul. 15th, 2011 10:22 amI picked up Karen Lord's Redemption in Indigo after reading ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija's enthusiastic review, which promised me metafictional commentary and a witty narrative voice and an awesome heroine who is temporarily given supernatural probability-altering powers but whose real talent is that she is a FABULOUS COOK.
And Redemption in Indigo does in fact have all these things, plus stressed-out and overworked junior spirits, a spider-trickster deeply embarrassed by his own occasional impulses of kindness, a set of quietly superpowered nuns, and an emphasis on small, responsible, hopeful acts of heroism, the kind that are too often overlooked by fiction at large. In short: I really, really liked it.
The plot is loosely inspired by a Senegalese folktale, and the voice is a clever storyteller's voice. The first half is full of wacky comedy-of-errors hijinks, with good spirits and evil spirits and angsty poets and our heroine's foolish ex-husband all tripping over each other. (The narrator is quite aware that the ex-husband's behavior is over-the-top, and primly explains, "I have already made it quite clear that the man has problems and we cannot expect him to act logically.") After a mid-story climax, the second half jettisons most of the hijinks and condenses down into a quiet but intense battle of two worldviews. The book as a whole is short (light, though not slight) and I don't want to say too much more about it, so instead I'll give you the storyteller's invitation:
A rival of mine once complained that my stories begin awkwardly and end untidily. I am willing to admit to many faults, but I will not burden my conscience with that one. All my tales are true, drawn from life, and a life story is not a tidy thing. It is a half-tamed horse that you seize on the run and ride with knees and teeth clenched, and then you regretfully slip off as gently and safely if you can, always wondering if you could have gone a few meters more.
This is definitely a horse worth riding.
rachelmanija's enthusiastic review, which promised me metafictional commentary and a witty narrative voice and an awesome heroine who is temporarily given supernatural probability-altering powers but whose real talent is that she is a FABULOUS COOK. And Redemption in Indigo does in fact have all these things, plus stressed-out and overworked junior spirits, a spider-trickster deeply embarrassed by his own occasional impulses of kindness, a set of quietly superpowered nuns, and an emphasis on small, responsible, hopeful acts of heroism, the kind that are too often overlooked by fiction at large. In short: I really, really liked it.
The plot is loosely inspired by a Senegalese folktale, and the voice is a clever storyteller's voice. The first half is full of wacky comedy-of-errors hijinks, with good spirits and evil spirits and angsty poets and our heroine's foolish ex-husband all tripping over each other. (The narrator is quite aware that the ex-husband's behavior is over-the-top, and primly explains, "I have already made it quite clear that the man has problems and we cannot expect him to act logically.") After a mid-story climax, the second half jettisons most of the hijinks and condenses down into a quiet but intense battle of two worldviews. The book as a whole is short (light, though not slight) and I don't want to say too much more about it, so instead I'll give you the storyteller's invitation:
A rival of mine once complained that my stories begin awkwardly and end untidily. I am willing to admit to many faults, but I will not burden my conscience with that one. All my tales are true, drawn from life, and a life story is not a tidy thing. It is a half-tamed horse that you seize on the run and ride with knees and teeth clenched, and then you regretfully slip off as gently and safely if you can, always wondering if you could have gone a few meters more.
This is definitely a horse worth riding.
