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A review by songwind
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
5.0
This book is almost a prose poem, which I am sure is the author's intent.
The titular city, Palimpsest, is an alternate world of alchemy and beauty that people from our world can enter only by sex with another person that has been there. Visitors to Palimpsest always come in fours, called a Quarto. The story follows the adventures (in Palimpsest and the real world) of a Quarto of immigrants as they learn their way around the city and the new world into which they have been thrust.
In addition to the beautiful language, the story follows many themes. Madness, death, loneliness, faith and war are all touched upon in the course of the story.
The only complaint I have is that the decorous language of the first handful of chapters is so intricate that it seems overdone. In addition, once more standard storytelling and dialogue become important, it can't really continue, so it feels as though the book has shifted a bit in viewpoint.
The titular city, Palimpsest, is an alternate world of alchemy and beauty that people from our world can enter only by sex with another person that has been there. Visitors to Palimpsest always come in fours, called a Quarto. The story follows the adventures (in Palimpsest and the real world) of a Quarto of immigrants as they learn their way around the city and the new world into which they have been thrust.
In addition to the beautiful language, the story follows many themes. Madness, death, loneliness, faith and war are all touched upon in the course of the story.
The only complaint I have is that the decorous language of the first handful of chapters is so intricate that it seems overdone. In addition, once more standard storytelling and dialogue become important, it can't really continue, so it feels as though the book has shifted a bit in viewpoint.