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Mar. 9th, 2021 10:48 pmI loved Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune and I think I might like the sequel novella, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, even better -- not that I think it's necessarily a better book than the first (both are delightful!) but it definitely hit my metanarrative buttons exactly right.
In this book, the archivist Chih gets trapped on a mountain with their mammoth-riding tour guide by a group of hungry tiger sisters. Their only chance for survival: engaging the tigers with a retelling and discussion of a famously romantic narrative about a scholar and her tiger wife ...
But of course the standard scholarly version of this story has differences from the tiger version, and also there are three tigers, so their ideas about what version of the story they like best don't always match either, and Chih's traveling companion has her own opinions, and all in all it seems like a wonderful opportunity to learn some interesting things about tiger courtship, which will make a very interesting addition to the records! Assuming the distraction works long enough to save Chih from the fate of becoming a tiger's dinner, which may be kind of a large assumption.
Like The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain leans heavily on the inherent tension between a tale and its tellers and its audience, using the small space of the novella to draw sharp attention to the impact of narrative choices and framing. It's a smaller-scale story than Empress -- less an examination of imperialism and empire, more an evocation of two different cultures through their narrative priorities -- but it's deeply smart and engaging and fun and I truly hope Nghi Vo writes a million of them.
In this book, the archivist Chih gets trapped on a mountain with their mammoth-riding tour guide by a group of hungry tiger sisters. Their only chance for survival: engaging the tigers with a retelling and discussion of a famously romantic narrative about a scholar and her tiger wife ...
But of course the standard scholarly version of this story has differences from the tiger version, and also there are three tigers, so their ideas about what version of the story they like best don't always match either, and Chih's traveling companion has her own opinions, and all in all it seems like a wonderful opportunity to learn some interesting things about tiger courtship, which will make a very interesting addition to the records! Assuming the distraction works long enough to save Chih from the fate of becoming a tiger's dinner, which may be kind of a large assumption.
Like The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain leans heavily on the inherent tension between a tale and its tellers and its audience, using the small space of the novella to draw sharp attention to the impact of narrative choices and framing. It's a smaller-scale story than Empress -- less an examination of imperialism and empire, more an evocation of two different cultures through their narrative priorities -- but it's deeply smart and engaging and fun and I truly hope Nghi Vo writes a million of them.
