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Mar. 11th, 2014 10:53 amI was surprised by how difficult I found A Stranger in Olondria to get through. I think it's one of those books that's written kind of on parallel to my writing sensibilities. Like, I can see very clearly what makes it good, but only from a bit of a distance.
A Stranger in Olondria is about a young pepper merchant named Jevick from a culture which is heavy on folklore and low on alphabets. After being educated by a foreign tutor from the densely literate and exotic-to-him country of Olondria, which is currently undergoing some religious and political difficulties of its own, he takes an educational trip that takes a left turn into OH SHIT when he becomes dangerously haunted by the ghost of a young woman he met on the ship out, who would like him to write her memoirs. Since the existence or non-existence of ghosts is currently a major issue in Olondria's religious-political schisms, Jevick's private haunting soon becomes a lot less private, as various major players begin to take an interest.
Hijinks do not ensue. This is not a book in which hijinks ever ensue; everyone is always too melancholy for that. It is a book that's full of gorgeous prose and evocative worldbuilding descriptions, hanging all through it like rather heavy pearls. Nothing in this book is ever light. Which is fine, but, as I've said before about Catherynne M. Valente, I think my lushness tolerance is a bit mis-calibrated for Sofia Samatar's (very lovely!) writing; like certain fancy dinners, it's all a bit too rich for me, which is maybe why trying to write about it seems to trap me in simile-land. SORRY, I CAN'T SEEM TO STOP.
Anyway, this is not exactly a critique. A Stranger in Olondria is a book that's doing a lot of interesting things; it's engaging very specifically with literacy and culture and beliefs and how those things intersect, and all that is deeply relevant to my interests. There's a lot in the book that's worth reading it for, and I wish I'd enjoyed it more. I suspect a lot of you would like it very much! But it never quite reached me.
A Stranger in Olondria is about a young pepper merchant named Jevick from a culture which is heavy on folklore and low on alphabets. After being educated by a foreign tutor from the densely literate and exotic-to-him country of Olondria, which is currently undergoing some religious and political difficulties of its own, he takes an educational trip that takes a left turn into OH SHIT when he becomes dangerously haunted by the ghost of a young woman he met on the ship out, who would like him to write her memoirs. Since the existence or non-existence of ghosts is currently a major issue in Olondria's religious-political schisms, Jevick's private haunting soon becomes a lot less private, as various major players begin to take an interest.
Hijinks do not ensue. This is not a book in which hijinks ever ensue; everyone is always too melancholy for that. It is a book that's full of gorgeous prose and evocative worldbuilding descriptions, hanging all through it like rather heavy pearls. Nothing in this book is ever light. Which is fine, but, as I've said before about Catherynne M. Valente, I think my lushness tolerance is a bit mis-calibrated for Sofia Samatar's (very lovely!) writing; like certain fancy dinners, it's all a bit too rich for me, which is maybe why trying to write about it seems to trap me in simile-land. SORRY, I CAN'T SEEM TO STOP.
Anyway, this is not exactly a critique. A Stranger in Olondria is a book that's doing a lot of interesting things; it's engaging very specifically with literacy and culture and beliefs and how those things intersect, and all that is deeply relevant to my interests. There's a lot in the book that's worth reading it for, and I wish I'd enjoyed it more. I suspect a lot of you would like it very much! But it never quite reached me.
