Valente, Catherynne M. - The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden

[oyceter]

I am not sure how to begin talking about this. To begin, as they say, at the beginning: I picked this up from the library late last year, after hearing buzz about it prior to the Tiptree award and even more buzz after. I read a few chapters, then my brain couldn't process the nested stories, and I was sad that the earlier stories felt Russian or vaguely European in tone. I returned it soon thereafter.

But something about it must have stuck with me, because I picked up the Haddawy version of The Arabian Nights that I've had sitting around for about two years, and the first thing I noticed was a translated metaphor about stories tattooed around eyes, or tattooed stories, or stories around eyes. I can't quite remember, but of course, such is the nature of stories.

I read some interviews with Valente afterward, and despite the somewhat Russian feel to the beginning, I happily noted that she mentioned almost all the characters were POC.

My second hold on the book finally came through a few days ago, and this time, I read it all in two or three sittings.

I give you all this extraneous, boring information about my life because the book itself is about storytellers and their audiences, how audiences become storytellers by telling how the stories shaped their own lives and perceptions, how audiences and storytellers shape the tale told. It's nested tale within nested tale, the final tale at the center swallowing and retelling the framing device. The first time, I was lost in the labyrinth of stories, but on rereading, I stopped marking my trail with white pebbles or breadcrumbs and let myself meander, always trusting the storytellers -- Valente and the orphan girl and the witches and beasts and monsters and virgins and those who are all of them -- to guide me through.

A feral girl in the sultan's garden has stories in tiny type tattooed around her eyes, circling over and over her eyelids. She tells the stories to one of the sultan's sons, though his older sister Dinarzad tries to prevent him from sneaking out. A prince kills a goose who is the daughter of a witch; an orphan girl with hair white as snow listens to a net weaver's tale; Stars are born and fall and die and rise again; cities unveil layers to those patient enough to dig around the foundations, to blow away centuries of dirt and find the history underneath.

I think I will save notes on gender and race for when I read the second book and can go into spoilery stuff. One quick note: At first, I was very confused by the worldbuilding, because though the mention of a sultan and the gardens were reminiscent of Arabian Nights, some of the food didn't feel Middle Eastern (possibly blackberries? I can't quite recall). But then, there would be Chinese-sounding games (lo shen) in an Arabian-sounding city led by a Papess, or Japanese fox women on pirate ships. I found that I tended to be more disconcerted by mentions of things that felt European to me in the cultures that didn't seem to be based on European cultures, or when things from two similar cultures were blended together (ex. foot binding, which afaik is Han Chinese, in the story of a woman with a Japanese name). I was definitely less bothered when the culture-crossing was done with two different European cultures, with a non-European element in what felt like a European culture, or with two different non-European cultures.

Just in case someone takes this wrong, I was not offended, given that every story in the book was multicultural. I.e. I am 99% sure Valente mixed cultures not because she could not distinguish between them, but because she was deliberately trying to include as many as she could and not privilege one over the others (I take off 1% because I am not Catherynne Valente, nor am I telepathic). I just found my own reaction interesting.

I highlight non-Western* cultures above, but in truth, Valente is interested in the stories of all who are usually the objects of stories, not the subjects nor the tellers. There are men and women and women who are men and men who are women and those who are neither; those who would be monsters in most stories are instead holy and beautiful or simply the norm.

The book is deeply transformative, critiquing the old and creating the new, engaging in metanarrative even as it spins an engaging, satisfying story on its own, and I particularly love how dedicated Valente is to the idea of the monstrous and whose perception makes monsters, of her continual highlighting of those who usually live in the margins of stories.

I'm really looking forward to the second book and finding out the story behind Dinarzad and the tattooed girl.

[Note] I know more people have read this! Pass me your links... I am dying to talk about this. Though please no spoilers for the second book.

Links:
- coffeeandink's review
- meganbmoore's review
- interview conducted by the ABW
- magicnoire's review
- interview conducted by rosefox
- minnow1212's review

* I know, I need a better term that does not define by negatives or by contrasting with a mythical norm, but I cannot think of one right now.

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I've read it (still have yet to read the second *sigh*), but alas my bookblog was nowhere near as smart or intelligent as everyone else's: http://magicnoire.livejournal.com/92996.html

[oyceter]

Thanks for the link!

Wah, I have to ILL the second... hopefully the wait will not be too long.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

This is on my bookmooch wishlist, because I really need to stop buying books.

[oyceter]

Looking forward to what you think when you get your hands on it!

I really need to stop buying books.

I am doing well on books, thanks to my library and the sheer genius that is the interlibrary loan! It's the manga that's killing me!

[kate_nepveu]

I finished this literally today.

Chinese-sounding games (lo shen) in an Arabian-sounding city led by a Papess

Yeah, that startled me a bit. I know I wasn't recognizing a lot of the references, but that one struck me. I'm not sure what I think about it.

I was amazed that I *didn't* get lost with the stories. I think the only thing that temporarily stopped me was Iolanthe and that's because I sometimes suck at names, and I got it after only a minute.

Did you think the second part was more straightforward and/or linear? Or was I just more used to the idea that it would all connect up?

[oyceter]

Oh, awesome! Are you writing it up soon? I think Yoon's reading it right now as well; I'm waiting for her to finish.

I think the bits that startled me most were the European-sounding food in the sultan's garden (though I preface this by saying that I could very well be mistaking something for European when it is not), the lo shen (the specific moves in the game are also Chinese), and the Chinese (I think) foot-binding in the Japanese myth.

I also found the second part to be easier to follow, but I think that may have been because I had gotten used to the structure -- the parts that stumped me were (minor spoilers) jura cnegf bs cneg 2 ersreerq onpx gb cneg 1, yvxr gur ornfg-znvqra jubfr anzr V whfg sbetbg naq gur zragvba bs gur Fanxr Fgne jvgu gur gevcyrgf naq gur ernccrnenapr bs Rlivaq (!!). I did have to flip back a little for Iolanthe because I forgot, but yes, I caught it pretty quickly, which impressed me!

I really want to do a closer reread just to see how Valente did it; I suspect there's a ton of craft in the "in-between" stories gently reminding the reader.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

"Lo Shen" seemed odd to me too, at first, but then it occurred to me that after all, chess in its many forms is a game that either originated in India and quite early on spread to China and the Middle East (and Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and Europe), or originated in China and spread etc. (my vague impression is that the available evidence favors the former scenario).

The big difference is that in the real world people change the names of things (and places) all the time, so instead of everyone calling the game chaturanga we have chess, shatranj, shogi, xiang qi, etc. One of the striking characteristics of the book is that for the most part things in it do not change their names, even when they're being referred to by people probably speaking different languages many years apart. While I am probably forgetting something, I can think of just two examples of names changing, one in the first volume and one in the second (which I am about 3/4 of the way through).

Is this constancy of names due to the fairy-tale nature of the stories? Is is a sort of trick on the part of Valente as "translator?" Beats me.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The impression I got( that I don't think I included when I posted on it because it was one of those periods where I didn't have as much time to do it- was that she deliberately included bits from every culture she could. The Middle Eastern influence is the most prominent because of the storytype, and because it's the most suitable setting.

Book 2 is actually probably the next book after the one I'm reading now.

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

I have the second book and am excited to read it, but I keep being sidetracked by the neverending stream of library books. >.> Also, I can't decide whether to reread the first before starting the second. But I adored the first. ^_^ (And didn't write it up, so there's no link.)

[oyceter]

The first is great! I am hoping that by the time the second comes through for me, I will still remember enough.

[fireriven.livejournal.com]

It took me several months to read this and I did so last summer, but I haven't gotten around to writing a review of it. To be honest, it's been hard to try and analyze the stories: they really became intensely personal things, lending me a light in dark places (I had a pretty rough summer). I may manage it after I read the second one and get around to processing the experience.

[oyceter]

*nods* Yeah, I have a very difficult time writing and/or analyzing books that are an intensely personal experience for me.

[seajules]

I read the first shortly after it first came out, but I haven't done a write-up. There's so much I can't articulate about my reaction to it.

Book 2 is sitting on the nightstand, waiting for me to get some free reading time.

[oyceter]

*nods* That seems to be a theme in the comments so far! It's just... such a large and complex book, and there are so many stories.

[ckd]

You may already know that Valente is yuki_onna, but if you didn't, now you do.

[oyceter]

I did, but thanks!

[loligo.livejournal.com]

If it enhances your enjoyment of the earlier sections at all, the various horse archer civilizations of The Steppes are neither ethnically nor culturally European. The only reason we tend to think of them as Russian is that the Russians invaded and annexed their land.

[oyceter]

That does, thanks!

And I do in general approve of more fantasy based on Russian mythology (actual Russian mythology, not annexed cultures' mythology); it is nice to go beyond faux medieval Europe.

[xenacryst.livejournal.com]

I read it ... no, I devoured it last summer after getting it at WisCon. I loved it very much for all the intricate storytelling and the monsters who were real people and the fantastical reimagining of all sorts of tropes and cliches. I wasn't really jolted by the culture mixing, since that, to me, went hand in hand with the mixing pot of everything else she was doing with the stories. And yes, I'm eagerly awaiting getting my hands on the next one, but I have no links or reviews for you.

[oyceter]

I think my reaction to the mixing is somewhat based on my usual buttons: there have been so many instances of people confusing Asian cultures with each other or people "westernizing" non-Western cultures that I tend to startle at it regardless. But yes, I do think she was doing it as a mixing pot and definitely not in the normal "if we mix enough, everything comes out European!" way.

[rosefox]

I posted an interview with yuki_onna here. No spoilers, though it does briefly name and describe one of the characters in the second book. It's about her work in general, not just the Orphan's Tales books.

My own reaction to the books was very analytical, though after six years of reviewing books for a living, that's not really surprising. I struggled to get into the first one, then got really drawn in by the language and story complexity. The second one is... different... and that's all I'll say about it, because in this case the experience of reading the book is as spoilable as the content. It's hard for me to talk about them separately, though, so I'll wait to discuss it further until you've read the second one.

It's also a bit complicated because Cat is a good friend of mine and I know a lot of the personal history and circumstance that informed the books. It was impossible to read them and not think of it. I have no idea what the reading experience is like for someone who doesn't know her, and I'm not sure how to talk about my reading experience without talking about personal things that I have no business discussing in public. Regardless, I'll be very interested to see what you have to say on the topic.

[oyceter]

Oh cool, thanks for the link!

Want second book now. Why library so slow?

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

I've read it, but I don't have any deep commentary. My one-liner was "Imaginative; colorful; dense with unexpected words; full of tales from all over the map, fairy tales to Scheherazade to fanciful Roman zoology, all twisted into spirals and set loose on each other."

Also, what coffeeandink said about "just fall down the next rabbit-hole". Someone must have obsessively diagrammed the plot, but you don't have to.

(I didn't even try to keep track of all the interrelations. In fact, I read the book slowly and in small doses, with other books in between.)

[kate_nepveu]

I desparately want to wiki-fy it just to make sure I'm not missing some awesome connection, but don't have time now and will eventually come to my senses, I'm sure. =>

[oyceter]

I am so tempted to diagram the plot/characters, but too lazy to do so.