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two novellas by Nghi Vo
Jun. 13th, 2021 04:49 pmThese two novellas stand alone well but also read GREAT back to back, and I loved them both a lot!!
The Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo
A novella about a cleric who's investigating the history of a now-dead Empress, and finds the Empress's favourite handmaiden to hear stories from her about the Empress's life in exile.
It's a story told in snapshots, a bit at a time, each piece of the story brought out by another object the cleric finds in the house of exile relating to that time. The handmaiden often asks the cleric "Do you understand?" and I'm not convinced I do always understand, myself, but you know, I don't think that matters! A story is created out of the mosaic nonetheless, and you can see the overall shape of what's going on, even if not all the specific things the handmaiden means by it.
It's a story of a foreign woman brought into the empire to be a lesser wife to the Emperor and serve a political need for him, who finds ways nonetheless to build her own power and to keep her own secrets. The reader gets to find out some of these secrets, but the Empress was clearly a woman with depths, and not everything is to be shared. The layers of metanarrative between the Empress and the reader allow her to remain in large part a mystery, but a compelling mystery that you find yourself cheering for.
An unusual book, and a really good one!
When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain, by Nghi Vo
Oh hello, this book might be actually perfect??? Or at least perfect for me! Sequel to The Empress of Salt and Fortune, this is the further adventures of the cleric Chih in travelling around taking down stories for the archives!
Chih is on a journey through the mountains when they and their guide are accosted by three tiger sisters. Chih talks the tigers into letting them stay alive at least a little longer, by promising to tell them a story. It's a story the tigers know too! And they spend the whole time Chih's telling the story explaining exactly how wrong they are.
I love how Chih is eternally inquisitive, just always wanting to know more about everything. I love the dynamics between the three tigers, that they're not a monolith of opinion. I love the guide, who trusts and adores her Very Good Mammoth. I love the story of the romance between Scholar Dieu and the tiger Ho Thi Thao. And I love love love that the entire theme of the book is that the way a story is told is always affected by who is doing the telling and what their priorities are.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo
A novella about a cleric who's investigating the history of a now-dead Empress, and finds the Empress's favourite handmaiden to hear stories from her about the Empress's life in exile.
It's a story told in snapshots, a bit at a time, each piece of the story brought out by another object the cleric finds in the house of exile relating to that time. The handmaiden often asks the cleric "Do you understand?" and I'm not convinced I do always understand, myself, but you know, I don't think that matters! A story is created out of the mosaic nonetheless, and you can see the overall shape of what's going on, even if not all the specific things the handmaiden means by it.
It's a story of a foreign woman brought into the empire to be a lesser wife to the Emperor and serve a political need for him, who finds ways nonetheless to build her own power and to keep her own secrets. The reader gets to find out some of these secrets, but the Empress was clearly a woman with depths, and not everything is to be shared. The layers of metanarrative between the Empress and the reader allow her to remain in large part a mystery, but a compelling mystery that you find yourself cheering for.
An unusual book, and a really good one!
When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain, by Nghi Vo
Oh hello, this book might be actually perfect??? Or at least perfect for me! Sequel to The Empress of Salt and Fortune, this is the further adventures of the cleric Chih in travelling around taking down stories for the archives!
Chih is on a journey through the mountains when they and their guide are accosted by three tiger sisters. Chih talks the tigers into letting them stay alive at least a little longer, by promising to tell them a story. It's a story the tigers know too! And they spend the whole time Chih's telling the story explaining exactly how wrong they are.
I love how Chih is eternally inquisitive, just always wanting to know more about everything. I love the dynamics between the three tigers, that they're not a monolith of opinion. I love the guide, who trusts and adores her Very Good Mammoth. I love the story of the romance between Scholar Dieu and the tiger Ho Thi Thao. And I love love love that the entire theme of the book is that the way a story is told is always affected by who is doing the telling and what their priorities are.
