The Stories of our Lives

Haven’t been joting down my reading list, after that first transition post.

Reine de mémoire – 1. La maison d’oubli by Elisabeth Vonarburg
[French] This is the third book I read by Vonarburg, who is Guy Gavriel Kay’s translator (most times) in Québec (and maybe in France, I don’t know.) First was was “Les voyageurs malgré eux”, when I was in high school, and more recently “Chroniques du pays des mères“. Vonarburg’s stories are very slow-paced, but emcompass some very intricate world building, and delicately detailed characters.

“Chroniques du pays des mères” (literaly “Chronicles from the Land of Mothers”) is a story set in a world where some unknown event of the past has taken away a lot of the technology and history records, and promted the apparition of a disease. This has affected births, many children die at an early age, and very few males. Children are kept together and raised by gardians, instead of family, males are a despairing minority, used for their seed and generally treated like cattle, and heterosexuality is not the norm (and even discouraged!). The protagonist is a young woman destined to be head of house (a region, really) but whose revealed barennes prohibits the life she was raised for. She leaves her home, then, almost in exile, which will eventually expand her horizons and take her places she’d never imagined. It was entirely worth the read, for its reflexions and perspectives, as well as its characters.

“Reine de mémoire” is a series with children as protagonists, set in an alternative past, and it is a little hard to describe, as I’m not through it yet, and they are still in discovery mode where I’m at. Religion is a theme, gender in religion also, as well as childhood and cultures. I’m enjoying it less than ‘Le pays des mères’, but then again Vonarburg’s writing is very much glimpse by glimpse, and you usually need to get to the end of a novel before you really know what it was about.

I halted my reading of it, to cut with my Christmas gift…

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
As always, Gabaldon’s Outlander novels are compulsively readable. Very earthy, fragrant and felt, you read it for Claire and Jamie Fraser, whose story you just can’t get enough of, no matter that the first books were the best ones. I’ll admit easily the 5th installment wasn’t up to the task, but I stopped expecting the focus and excitement of the first few novels, and I’m just enjoying reading the continuation of their lives, like an interlace of short stories or as in a tv series. Yes, it’s over-the-top passion; yes, it includes maybe one or two more highly satisfying romantic rescues than entirely believable, but that’s why we love it.

Gabaldon will have to get to the war of independance in the next installment, however, otherwise the series will fade out too much. Apparently the character might hop back to Scotland next, though, which is something I’d stopped hoping for, but should prove a very good move (and we want more Lord John Grey and William storylines!). I enjoy that series so much, I felt like rereading the first installment, which is what I’m doing now instead of resuming “Reine de Mémoire”. The contrast of the character’s appearance, 30 some years ago, is very interesting upon reread.

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
I halted my read of ‘A Breath…’ to read Kay’s new novel, of course, even though I resisted at first. Putting aside the eagerness to read any new material by GGK, I was really lagging behind all the discussion regarding Ysabel on the BrightWeavings.com forums. The first part of Ysabel read like a vacation, all sun and fun, and even though it got more serious after the first hundred page or so, the novel itself still feels like a lighter read than earlier works from GGK. Then again, I had that feeling with ‘Last Light’, his previous book, but the novel seemed to have gained some weight with a reread – Kay always weaves his stories with layers of themes and patterns, and sometime hidden hints and false perceptions, that almost require we come back to them for full understanding. I expect it is the same with Ysabel, and the story will ground itself down and thicken on a reread. I think I liked ‘Last Light’ better, still – though I’m the first one surprised : I’d usually lean more towards ‘Ysabel’ kinds of stories, in theory. Oh well.

Jeez, and to say I just wanted to jot down my recent reads… I’m really in a writing phase (both on and offline) nowadays.