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A review by oleksandr
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
4.0
This is a novel about a crow’s view on human civilization. Maybe I should start with deciphering the title: Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr. Ymr is the real of humans, both living and dead from Norse (?) myths; Ka is its equivalent in the crows’ world; Dar Oakley is the name of the crow, who narrates most of the book.
The book starts with the author, who recently lost his wife, found a wounded crow and takes it home. In time the crow and the author develop a common tongue and the crow tells his story.
The crow story has four parts, starting from [1] iron age Albion, with Celtic/Norse populations, following with [2] early medieval monks, [3] north American Indians up to the US civil war and [4] the present day/alt or near future. Crows are materialists, “dead is dead” is their common refrain, but humans made them in their stories as death birds and crows have to take part.
The story mixes the wealth of information about real biology/behavior of crows, their supposed difference in views from humans (like ‘in every human language we talk about ways and paths and bringing and bearing things along them. We come to a fork in the road, a parting of the ways, we take a wrong turn. Crows never talk in that way. But if I couldn’t, I’m not sure I could tell a story, or recount a life. We are beings on the path, always wondering what’s beyond the next turning. Crows live in a wide, trackless space of three dimensions.’). And last but not least, their appearance in our stories.
Great prose, vivid story, clever ideas.
The book starts with the author, who recently lost his wife, found a wounded crow and takes it home. In time the crow and the author develop a common tongue and the crow tells his story.
The crow story has four parts, starting from [1] iron age Albion, with Celtic/Norse populations, following with [2] early medieval monks, [3] north American Indians up to the US civil war and [4] the present day/alt or near future. Crows are materialists, “dead is dead” is their common refrain, but humans made them in their stories as death birds and crows have to take part.
The story mixes the wealth of information about real biology/behavior of crows, their supposed difference in views from humans (like ‘in every human language we talk about ways and paths and bringing and bearing things along them. We come to a fork in the road, a parting of the ways, we take a wrong turn. Crows never talk in that way. But if I couldn’t, I’m not sure I could tell a story, or recount a life. We are beings on the path, always wondering what’s beyond the next turning. Crows live in a wide, trackless space of three dimensions.’). And last but not least, their appearance in our stories.
Great prose, vivid story, clever ideas.