The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden
By Catherynne M. Valente
Published October 2006
See synopsis and editorial opinions on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Absolutely wonderful! I love the prose: it has a poetic rhythm akin to oral storytelling tradition, descriptive but not flowery, clever but not inaccessible. The tone and diction exude a strong sense of enchantment, combined with a commonplace lilt. You don't question anything, the world just exists and all events are told matter-of-fact, despite their fantastic nature.
The structure of the book would be a gimmick, if it weren't so masterfully implemented. We begin in the garden of a middle eastern type palace, where an unruly prince meets a mysterious orphan. The orphan tells a story, in which a character of the story tells another story, in which another character tells another story, and so on, in an elegant nested loop that builds a beautiful mythology. The tales spiral around each other and well-placed interludes bring the narrative back to the garden, grounding the book so you don't get lost. As the concentric stories progress, you start discovering connections on this delightful journey where a wide range of our own cultural legends and archetypes, like the Firebird and Mother Goose, the evil wizard and brave prince, are manipulated into the author's unique creations.
Valente is spinning her own fairy tales and they are amazing ones. Her characters are varied in form and manner, yet their struggles and emotions have a core of humanity which makes the stories meaningful and engaging. My only problem is how it abruptly ends, offering very few resolutions. If I didn't know there was a second book, I would have thrown a tantrum about all the threads left dangling.
It's rare to find well executed writing in conjunction with such marvelous imagination. This book is a definite must-read for fantasy/folklore fans and I can't wait to pick up the sequel and devour more!
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