Palwick, Susan - The Necessary Beggar

I think this is one of the better books that I've read so far this year. I am of course being rather iffy in my statement because it's only June! There is still hope!

But this is a very good book.

Timbor's family has been exiled from Lemabantunk because his son Darroti murdered a Mendicant, a holy beggar. So Timbor, his sons, and their families all find themselves in the unknown land of Reno, Nevada in 2022. And here, Zamatryna, Timbor's granddaughter, starts a new life in which she must reconcile her few memories of Lemabantunk with becoming American.

I am really simplifying the story. But the book is about culture and immigration, on love and loss, on faith, on the ghosts of the dead, and on hope. I loved how Palwick uses the fantasy elements to literalize some of the problems of immigration. Timbor and his family are from a place that does not exist on the world; they are the only ones who speak the language and know their own customs.

Palwick also did a great job with the worldbuilding of Lemabantunk, so much so that when Timbor's family first arrives in Nevada, you experience the same shock that they do -- beggars here are not holy, and the souls of the dead are not necessarily in everything, so things are not blessed. I loved that Lemabantunk and Timbor's family are clearly not-white and that white America, so often the norm, is the Other, because we are always seeing it through Timbor, Darroti and Zamatryna's POVs.

I had a few problems with the ending and with the real story of what happened with Darroti and the Mendicant he murdered, particularly because the ending slots together so neatly. Palwick knows this, and it's part of the point, but I think I would have preferred something a little messier, without quite so many parallels. And sometimes, I felt as though Timbor's family's experience wasn't quite as complex as a three-generation immigrant family's would be -- I would have liked more on language and losing language, on identity politics, especially for Zamatryna and her generation -- but it's pretty good nonetheless. I also had a few qualms with the portrayal of Christianity, but they are also fairly minor. I think Palwick did a good job of showing that there are many different kinds of Christians and how each of them interacts with their faith and their God. It was only one end plot point that pinged my buttons, and I was generally ok with it because it was with one Christian character, not both.

But those are fairly minor nitpicks; I enjoyed this book a lot, and it made me think a lot. And dude! A book with POC! There are white people in it as well, but as secondary characters. They help, but the agency and sympathy and points of view all remain with the POC!

I liked most of all that it felt like the right mix of loss and hope for Timbor's family, because those feel like the central emotions when you move cultures.

Links:
- minnow1212's review (spoilers)

Knitting and rat picture spam!

I feel like it's been a while since I've picture spammed people! In the meantime, I have been relentlessly knitting the tatami kimono, which takes so long!

( Giant rat pictures )

( Sock and tatami kimono giant pictures )