Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Bantam Books (New York, 2009). 1st edition, 1st printing. 367 pages. $14.00.
Description
"Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse -- a voyage permitted only to those who've always believed there's another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night." To this erotic and fantastic kingdom come Oleg, a New York locksmith; a beekeper, November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a Japanese woman named Sei, each of whom has lost something important in their lives. -- Publisher info.
Media reviews
You need a passport to enter the improbable city Palimpsest and its magical mindscapes: a map of the city tattooed in black ink somewhere on your body. But to receive the mark, first you must have sex with someone who already bears one. ... Too obsessive and self-involved to hold universal appeal,
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with characters resembling visitors from somebody else's recurring dreamscape.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member GingerbreadMan
From the very first page, describing Casimira’s vermin factory which produces flies, bees and rats for the city Palimpsest, I knew this was my kind of book. And from there, I went right into a two week maltreatment of it – reading snippets, falling asleep, not finding time for it for several
Palimpsest is a city in another world, and a sexually transmitted disease in ours. Having sex with someone infected is a ticket to passage, and symptoms include map-like birthmarks, displaying the part of the city you grant access to. Does that sound strange? Well, it’s really nothing compared to the city itself, where the dead are buried inside stalks of bamboo, where beggar surgeons pester people on the beach, where feral trains mate freely in abandoned stations and war veterans wear animal body parts. Many of the infected will do their best to shake off the city as dreams, doing all they can to stay away. But for some, people who have lost their way in life, Palimpsest becomes a possibility to find meaning. And for those, the pain lies in the fact that it seems impossible to stay more than a night at the time.
Part surreal New Weird, part urban fantasy and topped with just a pinch of erotica, this is a truly original reading experience. Heady and clever, but also with an emotional rawness and a fair bit of blood and sweat which corresponded with the melancholy streak in me. It isn’t all perfection. The four main storylines are given an exactly equal share of the book, without being equally interesting. And the 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 organization of the book gets a little static. At times Valente seems to whip up strange images for their own sake. And the language is really a little too incense-reeking for my usual taste. For me it works like all hell, but – a little bit like with the city in the book - I guess I can also see how you can hate this. Me? I’m going to read everything by this author, and will keep my eyes open for strange maps on the skin of strangers.
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days, and so forth. Which is not the best way to approach this rich, strange soup of ornamented, flowery language and bizarre imagery. But still the originality and emotional bite of this weird book cut through, and despite my best efforts to destroy it for myself, I’m left with one of this year’s most memorable reads.Palimpsest is a city in another world, and a sexually transmitted disease in ours. Having sex with someone infected is a ticket to passage, and symptoms include map-like birthmarks, displaying the part of the city you grant access to. Does that sound strange? Well, it’s really nothing compared to the city itself, where the dead are buried inside stalks of bamboo, where beggar surgeons pester people on the beach, where feral trains mate freely in abandoned stations and war veterans wear animal body parts. Many of the infected will do their best to shake off the city as dreams, doing all they can to stay away. But for some, people who have lost their way in life, Palimpsest becomes a possibility to find meaning. And for those, the pain lies in the fact that it seems impossible to stay more than a night at the time.
Part surreal New Weird, part urban fantasy and topped with just a pinch of erotica, this is a truly original reading experience. Heady and clever, but also with an emotional rawness and a fair bit of blood and sweat which corresponded with the melancholy streak in me. It isn’t all perfection. The four main storylines are given an exactly equal share of the book, without being equally interesting. And the 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 organization of the book gets a little static. At times Valente seems to whip up strange images for their own sake. And the language is really a little too incense-reeking for my usual taste. For me it works like all hell, but – a little bit like with the city in the book - I guess I can also see how you can hate this. Me? I’m going to read everything by this author, and will keep my eyes open for strange maps on the skin of strangers.
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LibraryThing member dukedom_enough
Think of a novel as an amalgam of its story, its ideas, its people, and the language in which it is told. Does a particular story demand a particular sort of language? Surely there's a lot of flexibility in choosing these elements.
Palimpsest is a fantastical city, sprawling over a vast territory,
We explore Palimpsest with several people, all quite peculiar even before venturing there, as they learn the city and, eventually, seek to emigrate to it permanently. Valente has a China Mieville-class imagination, and it's a joy to see her invent the people, creatures and places of the city. She tells the story, the wonders and horrors of Palimpsest, in a lush prose which verges at times on prose-poetry. Many - most - of the lushest passages work, advancing the story and giving the reader a glimpse of the marvellous:
Zarzaparrilla Street is paved with old coats. Layer after layer of fine corduroy and felt and wool the colors of coffee and ink. Those having business here must navigate with pole and gondola, ever so gently thrusting aside the sleeves and lapels and weedy ties, fluttering like seaweed, lurching as though some unlunar tide compelled them. The gondolas are rimmed in balsom and velvet, and they are silent through the depthless street. Great curving pairs of scissors are provided in case of sudden disaster, tucked neatly beneath the pilot's seat.
Then again, at least for me, many passages do not work. Oleg is a locksmith in our world, who collects locks of all sorts:
Keys did not really fascinate him, though he collected them as well, matching them carefully, not to the lock that was made for them, modern to modern, brass to brass, keycard to slot, as a common locksmith might, but to the ones he felt they yearned for, deep in their pressed metal hearts. ... Only Oleg had heard their cries for each other. Only Oleg knew their silent grief that they could not join.
The difficulty of poetry, and poetic prose, is that every word and phrase must be nearly perfect. Valente falls short in many places, including in many of the numerous sexual encounters that enable her protagonists' exploration of the city.
Does all this work? Did the author's idea require her language? Might a plainer style have been a better choice? Maybe, but then we would not have her successful flights either. On balance, I'm happy to go for a positive rating. Worth a try if you like innovative fantasy.
Palimpsest is a fantastical city, sprawling over a vast territory,
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functioning on magic, eclectic in architecture, infested with clockwork insects, populated by humans and chimerae, where sentient, willful trains run through the subways. People from our world may visit, but only in our dreams, and only after a sexual encounter with someone who has already been there. That partner will have had a skin blemish somewhere on his or her body, an apparent tattoo, which is actually a map of a region of Palimpsest. In his or her next dream, the new initiate will be able to visit that region. He will awaken with a map tattoo on his own skin, indelible, giving access to a different neighborhood of the city to his subsequent partners. To explore new areas himself, he must find new partners.We explore Palimpsest with several people, all quite peculiar even before venturing there, as they learn the city and, eventually, seek to emigrate to it permanently. Valente has a China Mieville-class imagination, and it's a joy to see her invent the people, creatures and places of the city. She tells the story, the wonders and horrors of Palimpsest, in a lush prose which verges at times on prose-poetry. Many - most - of the lushest passages work, advancing the story and giving the reader a glimpse of the marvellous:
Zarzaparrilla Street is paved with old coats. Layer after layer of fine corduroy and felt and wool the colors of coffee and ink. Those having business here must navigate with pole and gondola, ever so gently thrusting aside the sleeves and lapels and weedy ties, fluttering like seaweed, lurching as though some unlunar tide compelled them. The gondolas are rimmed in balsom and velvet, and they are silent through the depthless street. Great curving pairs of scissors are provided in case of sudden disaster, tucked neatly beneath the pilot's seat.
Then again, at least for me, many passages do not work. Oleg is a locksmith in our world, who collects locks of all sorts:
Keys did not really fascinate him, though he collected them as well, matching them carefully, not to the lock that was made for them, modern to modern, brass to brass, keycard to slot, as a common locksmith might, but to the ones he felt they yearned for, deep in their pressed metal hearts. ... Only Oleg had heard their cries for each other. Only Oleg knew their silent grief that they could not join.
The difficulty of poetry, and poetic prose, is that every word and phrase must be nearly perfect. Valente falls short in many places, including in many of the numerous sexual encounters that enable her protagonists' exploration of the city.
Does all this work? Did the author's idea require her language? Might a plainer style have been a better choice? Maybe, but then we would not have her successful flights either. On balance, I'm happy to go for a positive rating. Worth a try if you like innovative fantasy.
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LibraryThing member clfisha
It's not for everyone, this beautiful, chaotic, often too rich novel. A slow magical dance that draws you in until you are there amidst a whirling dervish. Patience is required, take in the sights, make yourself at home, get to know the characters... and you will be richly rewarded.
The story is
There are some stunning ideas here, wrapped in gorgeous imagery, from the river of old clothes to a bamboo forest of the dead. The story is rhythmic, set into a pattern with each chapter starting with a glimpse of city, a city guide told by our unseen narrator. Each character has their allotted turn and when all have been visited time moves on. It an interesting stylistic choice but one which works well, smoothing the pacing and adding excitement with potentials.. if character a is doing x what will character b do.
There are negatives (although not for me). The writing style may not be to everyone's tastes, the seemingly unrelated guides to the city, the not always likable characters. It maybe too fantastical for some but for me the whole thing works like clockwork. Reality grounds the baroque, the premise adds a stark darkness and the story flow beautifully because of the dreamy poetic style.
The story is
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narrated by a proud mysterious narrator and through "her" we meet four characters scattered all over our globe from San Francisco to Kyoto, all who have 'caught' Palimpsest, a patchwork city of the fantastical. The premise is startling as it is inventive, palimpsest as a sexual transmitted disease. One night of passion with someone who is 'infected' and you could wake up with a strange map like brand. This is the doorway. To enter again is an act of passion and to navigate the city you must find the right map. How far would you go to get what you want?There are some stunning ideas here, wrapped in gorgeous imagery, from the river of old clothes to a bamboo forest of the dead. The story is rhythmic, set into a pattern with each chapter starting with a glimpse of city, a city guide told by our unseen narrator. Each character has their allotted turn and when all have been visited time moves on. It an interesting stylistic choice but one which works well, smoothing the pacing and adding excitement with potentials.. if character a is doing x what will character b do.
There are negatives (although not for me). The writing style may not be to everyone's tastes, the seemingly unrelated guides to the city, the not always likable characters. It maybe too fantastical for some but for me the whole thing works like clockwork. Reality grounds the baroque, the premise adds a stark darkness and the story flow beautifully because of the dreamy poetic style.
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LibraryThing member viking2917
a fever dream of a novel. Four strangers mysteriously find their way to a very strange city, in their dreams, apparently. The city is described in delirious prose that almost feels drug induced. The strangers can only get there by having sex with someone who's already been there and has a tattoo, a
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mark, on their skin with a map of part of the city - whereupon they receive a mark as well. The book has a strong internal logic and powerful eroticism, taps that emotion about wanting to be somewhere else and with someone else and being willing to do anything to get there. Fairy tale - like in that the story is mysterious and magical but the overall plot is murky and the moral of the story is hardly clear….but worth reading for the prose alone. Show Less
LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
I do believe Palimpsest qualifies as the sexiest book I've ever read. Whew! Palimpsest is a fantastical city, maybe the city of the dead, full of surrealistic buildings, people who have had animal parts grafted onto themselves, a place where many people are unable to speak, where there is a river
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of cream, a tea house roofed with fingernail clippings and the trains are living creatures who breed with each other and must be caught if a passenger wants to ride. The only way to get to this fantastic city is to have sex with a person who has a black map tattooed somewhere on their body. Men who have never done so before have sex with men, women have sex with women much more readily, and men and women have sex with each other. Occasionally there is incest. After you have had sex with a tattooed stranger a black tattoo will appear somewhere on your body, but before that you sleep and dream your way into Palimpsest. Besides trains, houses and even the whole city are personified. Everything is so strange that it's hard for the reader to understand where she is, who is talking and exactly what is happening. As one man said, "You just have to open yourself and let it in." In the end, all the sex notwithstanding, virtue and constancy are emphasized. I'll be reading more of Catherynne Valente. I wonder if her other books are so poetic. Show Less
LibraryThing member jbrubacher
A city can be visited only by attaining a part of its map, and that map is sexually transmitted. This is how the book is advertised but that aspect gets old pretty quickly. The beauty in the book is something else: it's a woman who is dreadfully marked and maimed by her experience but never doubts
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that it's right. A man who loses his sister and then loses her ghost, and another who offers his tongue as payment to immigrate to the city. And a young girl who desperately seeks for the right parts of the map so she can continue her travel on a train that tells her it needs her. These things take time to develop and the language is so fancy, the city so nonsensical, it would be easy to give up if you didn't love the style already. I just about gave up, but the people grew on me and slowly I understood them and came to care about their quest. This is an odd book but it's also charming and magical and it delivers in the end. Read two chapters and see if you'll enjoy it. Not one chapter-- two. Show Less
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente is one of those strange novels that we just need a new genre for. It is somewhere between poetry and prose, between fantasy and dreams. Palimpsest is a city where you can go only if you make sex with someone that had been already there and the city marks its
Sei is from Japan, obsessed with trains and the city manifests itself as a non-stop journey in a train which is not exactly train; in a world where trains are alive; November is a Californian girl that deals with bees... and it's not a surprise that the city will show her the other woman, in the other reality that deals with insects; Oleg is a locksmith from New York who had lost his sister before even being born and regardless of it, he still sees her ghost; Ludovico is an Italian master of books binding. Some of them meet unknown people, some of them just go to bed with their halves. But the result is the same - they receive Palimpsest's tattoos and enter the city. Every one of them had lost something - a parent, a sister or a wife and every one of them have their own lives and dreams. And in the world of Palimpsest some of those dreams come true.
Each part of the book contains 4 chapters - going through the life of each of the characters - in the real and in the dreamy world. Even when they get together, this structure is not changed. And every part becomes shorter and shorter and the suspense just builds on. And the city is cruel and alive.
The language in the novel is so poetic that the sex descriptions and the cruel things have their own ring to them - in the same way Dante's creations sound poetic and scary at the same time.
That was the first novel by Catherynne M. Valente that I had read and I liked it. I am not sure that the novel needed the descriptions of the sex that lead to going to Palimpsest, as poetic and matter-of-factly it was and the novel would not have lost anything by not having it. But that's the author choice... and I will probably read some more novels by her - I loved the language and the imagination.
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people by putting a tattoo on their bodies. And these tattoos are controlling what you can see from the city - you need to be in contact with someone that have a part of the city on their skin in order to be able to go to this place. And the city is real and unreal at the same time - people see their dreams coming true there but at the same time anything that happens there remains valid even after they leave the city and come back to the real world. And the internal logic of the city allows everyone that wants to move permanently in the city - as long as they find the rest of their group (the first time you go to the city, you get connected to 3 more people that had entered almost at the same time and you feel anything that happens to them in this dreamy town) and convince them to emigrate. The novel is the story of one such quarter and their struggle to understand what happens to them and how to remain in Palimpsest forever.Sei is from Japan, obsessed with trains and the city manifests itself as a non-stop journey in a train which is not exactly train; in a world where trains are alive; November is a Californian girl that deals with bees... and it's not a surprise that the city will show her the other woman, in the other reality that deals with insects; Oleg is a locksmith from New York who had lost his sister before even being born and regardless of it, he still sees her ghost; Ludovico is an Italian master of books binding. Some of them meet unknown people, some of them just go to bed with their halves. But the result is the same - they receive Palimpsest's tattoos and enter the city. Every one of them had lost something - a parent, a sister or a wife and every one of them have their own lives and dreams. And in the world of Palimpsest some of those dreams come true.
Each part of the book contains 4 chapters - going through the life of each of the characters - in the real and in the dreamy world. Even when they get together, this structure is not changed. And every part becomes shorter and shorter and the suspense just builds on. And the city is cruel and alive.
The language in the novel is so poetic that the sex descriptions and the cruel things have their own ring to them - in the same way Dante's creations sound poetic and scary at the same time.
That was the first novel by Catherynne M. Valente that I had read and I liked it. I am not sure that the novel needed the descriptions of the sex that lead to going to Palimpsest, as poetic and matter-of-factly it was and the novel would not have lost anything by not having it. But that's the author choice... and I will probably read some more novels by her - I loved the language and the imagination.
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LibraryThing member narwhaltortellini
I picked this book up being a fantasy fan who often grows weary of the cliché plots and nondescript or lazy seeming prose of many novels of the genre. The premise sounded quite original and the prose I heard was distinctive and poetic. The main complaint I'd heard on the book was that the author
Though there were things I enjoyed or appreciated in Palimpsest, I ended up underwhelmed by my experience overall. The truth is, while my reasons for picking up the book may have been different, the main thing I like to get out of a novel is engaging characters and character relationships. The novels characters are I suppose interesting people with layers and depth. Still, while it may be personal preference, all of them were hard to relate to.
While each character had their own particular situations and quirks, in general each could be summed up fairly well as 'obsessive and world-weary.' They permeate the novel with a feeling of tired, lonesome desperation. Even when in the magical Palimpsest which supposedly made them happier, they still seemed to exude this feeling. I found myself wishing the characters would stop being able to go to their magical world to get away from it all, just so they could get stuck in the real world and learn to deal and connect with it like the rest of us. While I didn't actually dislike any of them, I became disinterested in their emotional battles. As the novel doesn't have much in the way of plot, this didn't leave a terrible lot left to engage me.
The novel does have its merits, though, the main one being the author's impressive imagination. I'm quite positive I've never seen a collection of so many strange, magical, striking and sometimes disturbing images/places described in one book before. Each new area of Palimpsest the author describes feels unique and fresh, not just from the other parts of the city described in the book, but from anything I've heard before.
On the other hand, though, these fantastical places the author describes in such wonderful detail are too commonly utterly unimportant. When characters enter an area, it is described, and then the scene goes on, with characters interacting often only minimally with the fascinating place they have just entered. Striking as may of the images were initially, most faded from my mind after not too long due to not being put to any use after being described. While I appreciated being able to view so many fascinating backdrops, I would rather have seen the number cut down drastically in order for the characters to interact more and delve deeper into a smaller number of locations.
For some, though, I do think Palimpsest may be worth reading just for the fascinating images alone. So long as you don't mind the dreary characters who'd rather escape to another place than learn to function like normal human beings, you may find it an interesting character study as well. But if you're looking for terribly likable, engaging people to read about, you may find yourself disappointed. And if you're looking for something plotty, you probably should even bother picking this one up. Overall I'd say the book is high quality, with lovely-if-perhaps-overdone-for-some-tastes prose and plenty of originality and maturity, but it's still definitely not for all audiences.
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seemed perhaps a little too in love with her use of language, but I figured I could withstand that possibility for the chance to see something original.Though there were things I enjoyed or appreciated in Palimpsest, I ended up underwhelmed by my experience overall. The truth is, while my reasons for picking up the book may have been different, the main thing I like to get out of a novel is engaging characters and character relationships. The novels characters are I suppose interesting people with layers and depth. Still, while it may be personal preference, all of them were hard to relate to.
While each character had their own particular situations and quirks, in general each could be summed up fairly well as 'obsessive and world-weary.' They permeate the novel with a feeling of tired, lonesome desperation. Even when in the magical Palimpsest which supposedly made them happier, they still seemed to exude this feeling. I found myself wishing the characters would stop being able to go to their magical world to get away from it all, just so they could get stuck in the real world and learn to deal and connect with it like the rest of us. While I didn't actually dislike any of them, I became disinterested in their emotional battles. As the novel doesn't have much in the way of plot, this didn't leave a terrible lot left to engage me.
The novel does have its merits, though, the main one being the author's impressive imagination. I'm quite positive I've never seen a collection of so many strange, magical, striking and sometimes disturbing images/places described in one book before. Each new area of Palimpsest the author describes feels unique and fresh, not just from the other parts of the city described in the book, but from anything I've heard before.
On the other hand, though, these fantastical places the author describes in such wonderful detail are too commonly utterly unimportant. When characters enter an area, it is described, and then the scene goes on, with characters interacting often only minimally with the fascinating place they have just entered. Striking as may of the images were initially, most faded from my mind after not too long due to not being put to any use after being described. While I appreciated being able to view so many fascinating backdrops, I would rather have seen the number cut down drastically in order for the characters to interact more and delve deeper into a smaller number of locations.
For some, though, I do think Palimpsest may be worth reading just for the fascinating images alone. So long as you don't mind the dreary characters who'd rather escape to another place than learn to function like normal human beings, you may find it an interesting character study as well. But if you're looking for terribly likable, engaging people to read about, you may find yourself disappointed. And if you're looking for something plotty, you probably should even bother picking this one up. Overall I'd say the book is high quality, with lovely-if-perhaps-overdone-for-some-tastes prose and plenty of originality and maturity, but it's still definitely not for all audiences.
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LibraryThing member krau0098
Previous to this book I had read a short story of Valente's called "A Delicate Architecture" in the Anthology "A Troll's Eye View"; I loved that story and was eager to read a full length novel by Valente. This novel was absolutely wonderful. The imagery Valente creates is phenomenal, and the
This is the story of four stangers. Oleg a locksmith that lives with his dead sister, November a beekeeper who is obsessed with her bees, Ludovico a rare book binder who loves his books above all else, and Sei a young Japanese woman who is enraptured by trains. All four of them have something in common, they all chance to meet strangers that they connect with and sleep with. Each of the strangers bears a spider-webbed map-like mark on their body. The four protagonists in turn find themselves with a black map mark and when they dream after the encounter they find themselves in the city of Palimpsest, a city that can full-fill all your dreams. For a while and at a cost.
This was a very creative premise. Basically the only way to enter Palimpsest is to have sex with a stranger. Then when you enter Palimpsest you can only visit the parts of the city that you have previously visited or the parts that are marked on the map-like tattoo of the stranger you sleep with. So, the more people you sleep with, the more parts of the city you can visit. But you can only ever visit in dreams; the characters spend a lot of the book trying to figure out how to stay in Palimpsest permanently.
Palimpsest is a city like no-other. Palimpsest is a character in herself, and often encounters the characters on their journey through her. Each of the four characters are all a bit ironic because they each have things they obsess and love over all other things, and they are not conventional things like people; yet, the characters are continually forced to enter into interactions with other people to enter Palimpsest at all. The plot and story are intricate and mysterious, and by no means straight-forward. I found myself loving the plot and loving the fact you have to constantly think and try to figure out exactly what is going on.
If you are the type of person who likes your narratives easily understood and likes quick straight-forward writing styles I would steer clear of this book. Nothing about this writing is straight-forward. Valente weaves intricate and luscious pictures out of the most mundane things. She brings everything so alive that you can picture it glittering and sparkling in your mind. In fact everything is detailed so delicately and deliberately at times the plots spins away for a while and you are lost to the environment of the book. Much of the beginning of the book and all of the scenes that take place in Palimpsest have a very surreal and dream-like quality to them. I thought they were beautiful beyond imaging, but if I wasn't the kind of person who likes being ale to image and savor every beautiful and glinting detail of the world, I suppose it might have been irritating.
Given the premise of the story, I should mention that although sex is pivotal to the story it actually isn't really involved in much of the story. The sex scenes are very brief and not gone into in great detail or even very explicit detail. Keep in mind all these characters love something and, in general, it is not people. The sex is used a vehicle to get into Palimpsest, as such, it is dealt with in that way. So, people who don't like sex in their books, should still give this a try as it is not a huge part of the story.
I loved this story to death. The writing was absolutely enrapturing. I savored every word I read. The story was incredibly creative and very interesting to piece together. People who don't like a dream-like quality to their books and who prefer straight-forward stories should steer clear though. Will I be reading more Valente? You bet! I would like to read everything she has written.
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premise of the story is one of the most creative I have read in some time.This is the story of four stangers. Oleg a locksmith that lives with his dead sister, November a beekeeper who is obsessed with her bees, Ludovico a rare book binder who loves his books above all else, and Sei a young Japanese woman who is enraptured by trains. All four of them have something in common, they all chance to meet strangers that they connect with and sleep with. Each of the strangers bears a spider-webbed map-like mark on their body. The four protagonists in turn find themselves with a black map mark and when they dream after the encounter they find themselves in the city of Palimpsest, a city that can full-fill all your dreams. For a while and at a cost.
This was a very creative premise. Basically the only way to enter Palimpsest is to have sex with a stranger. Then when you enter Palimpsest you can only visit the parts of the city that you have previously visited or the parts that are marked on the map-like tattoo of the stranger you sleep with. So, the more people you sleep with, the more parts of the city you can visit. But you can only ever visit in dreams; the characters spend a lot of the book trying to figure out how to stay in Palimpsest permanently.
Palimpsest is a city like no-other. Palimpsest is a character in herself, and often encounters the characters on their journey through her. Each of the four characters are all a bit ironic because they each have things they obsess and love over all other things, and they are not conventional things like people; yet, the characters are continually forced to enter into interactions with other people to enter Palimpsest at all. The plot and story are intricate and mysterious, and by no means straight-forward. I found myself loving the plot and loving the fact you have to constantly think and try to figure out exactly what is going on.
If you are the type of person who likes your narratives easily understood and likes quick straight-forward writing styles I would steer clear of this book. Nothing about this writing is straight-forward. Valente weaves intricate and luscious pictures out of the most mundane things. She brings everything so alive that you can picture it glittering and sparkling in your mind. In fact everything is detailed so delicately and deliberately at times the plots spins away for a while and you are lost to the environment of the book. Much of the beginning of the book and all of the scenes that take place in Palimpsest have a very surreal and dream-like quality to them. I thought they were beautiful beyond imaging, but if I wasn't the kind of person who likes being ale to image and savor every beautiful and glinting detail of the world, I suppose it might have been irritating.
Given the premise of the story, I should mention that although sex is pivotal to the story it actually isn't really involved in much of the story. The sex scenes are very brief and not gone into in great detail or even very explicit detail. Keep in mind all these characters love something and, in general, it is not people. The sex is used a vehicle to get into Palimpsest, as such, it is dealt with in that way. So, people who don't like sex in their books, should still give this a try as it is not a huge part of the story.
I loved this story to death. The writing was absolutely enrapturing. I savored every word I read. The story was incredibly creative and very interesting to piece together. People who don't like a dream-like quality to their books and who prefer straight-forward stories should steer clear though. Will I be reading more Valente? You bet! I would like to read everything she has written.
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LibraryThing member GirlMisanthrope
A magical land entered during fantastic sex. A very grown up trip to Wonderland through the rabbit hole. People who have visited this land can recognize each other when they see a tattoo of a map of Palimpsest.
Told in florid prose, we follow 4 people who take different journies to Palimpsest. The
I got tired of unknotting the flowery structure and could not finish the book. It can be difficult to follow at times and I found myself rereading multiple sections.
Told in florid prose, we follow 4 people who take different journies to Palimpsest. The
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author takes them in directions you don't see coming and is not overly sympathetic to her characters. I got tired of unknotting the flowery structure and could not finish the book. It can be difficult to follow at times and I found myself rereading multiple sections.
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LibraryThing member cissa
Initially: I have barely started this, and at this point plan to proceed, but: the exceedingly lush, poetic prose is not an attraction for me. I tend to read for narrative, not poetry. I am unsure at this point whether the book will have both; it' it's just the poetic prose, I will do my best to
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stop reading it in mid-stream, since i have enough other books that need reading to make me reluctant to spend a lot of time reading something too perfumed for my taste. Note that I ahve not yet decided whether this is "too perfumed". Show Less
LibraryThing member salimbol
An absolutely astonishing book about four lost souls hunting for a sexually-transmitted city. It's erotic, haunting and poignant, and seduces the reader into a dreamlike state. On top of that, not a page goes by without the lush prose conjuring up the most amazing imagery. It certainly won't be to
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everyone's tastes, but I loved it. Show Less
LibraryThing member janemarieprice
A palimpsest is a book or page which has the original writing scraped off to be used again, with a trace of the old left behind. The Palimpsest of the novel is a fantastical world arrived at from this world only by having sex with someone who has been. Once one has gone, a tattoo of a map of part
It is a very open ended novel. The character motivations are fuzzy. What is actually happening in Palimpsest is unclear at times. The beauty is in the descriptions of the city.
Palimpsest possesses two churches. They are identical in every way. They stand together, wrapping the street corner like a hinge. Seven white columns each, wound around with black characters that are not Cyrillic, but to the idle glance might seem so. Two peaked roofs of red lacquer and two stone horses with the heads of fork-tongued lizards stand guard on either side of each door. The ancient faithful built them with stones from the same quarry on the far eastern border of the city, pale green and dusty, each round and perfect as a ball. There is more mortar in the edifices than stones, mortar crushed from Casimira dragonflies donated by the vat, tufa dust, and mackerel tails. The pews are scrubbed and polished with lime oil, and each Thursday, parishioners share a communion of slivers of whale meat and cinnamon wine.
Valente must have been reading Calvino’s Invisible Cities when she wrote this novel. The dreamlike prose works to advantage though - what is real, what is imagined, is the city taking such a toll on these characters or are they torturing themselves. Much unanswered but an enjoyable read.
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of the city appears on their skin. Not as titillating as it sounds though once desperation builds to return and drastic measures are taken. It is a very open ended novel. The character motivations are fuzzy. What is actually happening in Palimpsest is unclear at times. The beauty is in the descriptions of the city.
Palimpsest possesses two churches. They are identical in every way. They stand together, wrapping the street corner like a hinge. Seven white columns each, wound around with black characters that are not Cyrillic, but to the idle glance might seem so. Two peaked roofs of red lacquer and two stone horses with the heads of fork-tongued lizards stand guard on either side of each door. The ancient faithful built them with stones from the same quarry on the far eastern border of the city, pale green and dusty, each round and perfect as a ball. There is more mortar in the edifices than stones, mortar crushed from Casimira dragonflies donated by the vat, tufa dust, and mackerel tails. The pews are scrubbed and polished with lime oil, and each Thursday, parishioners share a communion of slivers of whale meat and cinnamon wine.
Valente must have been reading Calvino’s Invisible Cities when she wrote this novel. The dreamlike prose works to advantage though - what is real, what is imagined, is the city taking such a toll on these characters or are they torturing themselves. Much unanswered but an enjoyable read.
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LibraryThing member mausergem
There is a world of dreams where you can go if you have a special map shaped mark on your skin anywhere and you have sex with a similar individual. The special mark is bistowed in a group of four in a special ceremony. In the real world if you can find all four individuals you can emigrate to
It is an interesting concept but the the book goes nowhere.
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Palimpsest for ever.It is an interesting concept but the the book goes nowhere.
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LibraryThing member quigui
Palimpsest is a very weird book. I knew that before I started, and that was probably the reason I didn't pick it up sooner. It is a good kind of weird, but I definitely needed to be in the right state of mind to read it.
It's not only weird, but complex. There are many stories interwoven in
But this is the kind of book that you discover slowly. Slowly you unravel the story of each character, just as you slowly discover the city of Palimpsest and the book becomes more clearer. And this is the kind of book that needs attention while being read, every detail is important. I admit that at first I was not as attentive as I should, and I missed some things. But as I became more and more engrossed in the story, I started to see the connections and details.
Even though this book is confusing at first, and it takes some time to start to understand it, it is a pleasure to read because the writing is excellent. Poetic and vivid, I could see the pictures it painted in my mind very clear; beautiful, terrifying and surreal. It was the writing that made me read on, until I started to have characters I loved, characters I liked, and characters I disliked, until the mystery city of Palimpsest was not confusing but intriguing.
I enjoyed this book a lot, although I kept waiting for the ending to blow me away, it never really did. I will be re-reading it some time in the future, to pay attention to the details I missed, to the ones that only make sense once you know the ending... But that's a plan for later. For now, I can say it is a good book.
Also at Spoilers and Nuts
It's not only weird, but complex. There are many stories interwoven in
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Palimpsest, far more than the back cover promises. At first I was utterly lost. Lost about what was happening in the story, where it all was supposed to go, or even if it was supposed to go anywhere.But this is the kind of book that you discover slowly. Slowly you unravel the story of each character, just as you slowly discover the city of Palimpsest and the book becomes more clearer. And this is the kind of book that needs attention while being read, every detail is important. I admit that at first I was not as attentive as I should, and I missed some things. But as I became more and more engrossed in the story, I started to see the connections and details.
Even though this book is confusing at first, and it takes some time to start to understand it, it is a pleasure to read because the writing is excellent. Poetic and vivid, I could see the pictures it painted in my mind very clear; beautiful, terrifying and surreal. It was the writing that made me read on, until I started to have characters I loved, characters I liked, and characters I disliked, until the mystery city of Palimpsest was not confusing but intriguing.
I enjoyed this book a lot, although I kept waiting for the ending to blow me away, it never really did. I will be re-reading it some time in the future, to pay attention to the details I missed, to the ones that only make sense once you know the ending... But that's a plan for later. For now, I can say it is a good book.
Also at Spoilers and Nuts
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LibraryThing member wiremonkey
In the author's own words, this book is about a "sexually transmitted city."
Yeah.
One of the weirdest, most beautiful, hard to comprehend books I've read in a long time. The story follows four people in different parts of the planet who come to the gates of Palimpsest at the same time. To do this,
The sections where she describes the city are so dense I could hardly understand them, although it was worth while slogging through the metaphorical foliage. However, the sections where she describes the desperation and grief of her four characters and their need to get back to the city were poignant. Through all its fantastic, brightly-coloured plumes of prose, the core of this novel is stark loneliness and our all-too human desire for elusive connection. It is worth a read as long as you don't mind purple, all be-it masterfully done prose.
Yeah.
One of the weirdest, most beautiful, hard to comprehend books I've read in a long time. The story follows four people in different parts of the planet who come to the gates of Palimpsest at the same time. To do this,
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they have sex with someone who has a a bit of the city that grew like a rash on a part of their body and which our four characters will also sport now. The gates are the store of a Frog woman, where she gives them an ink foot bath. I could go on but it just gets weirder and weirder. Valente's prose is a tangled jungle of metaphor and imagery, the kind where it is really easy to get lost in (in a good and bad way).The sections where she describes the city are so dense I could hardly understand them, although it was worth while slogging through the metaphorical foliage. However, the sections where she describes the desperation and grief of her four characters and their need to get back to the city were poignant. Through all its fantastic, brightly-coloured plumes of prose, the core of this novel is stark loneliness and our all-too human desire for elusive connection. It is worth a read as long as you don't mind purple, all be-it masterfully done prose.
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LibraryThing member sageness
I'm not sure what to think of this book. Parts of it are grossly self-indulgent and other parts are stunningly beautiful. The emotional payoff of the ending worked for me -- embarrassingly so, even -- but the gratuitous porn didn't serve the story as much as it was meant to. The strongest parts of
I'm also reading Robert Hass' Sun Under Wood right now and I wonder if it was an influence. The words and tone match too perfectly.
However, the tone is a problem I have. The tone of the novel is unrelentingly exultant. It doesn't waver. It OUGHT TO waver with the horror and grief and loss the characters face, but they wave off all their troubles despite becoming indigent in their obsessions...which is an interesting and strange way to romanticize an interesting and strange, brutal and transcendent sexually transmitted disease.
I wish this had been less extravagant and more coldly clinical in places, less blowhard and more rough scrape of reality. I mean, I still liked it all right, but in the end, four people fuck a lot and meet up in Japan. A little more substance to their lives would've made this a much more satisfying read.
Cataloging note: I don't understand calling it "urban fantasy" even if it is about a city. It's too lush. Even its grit is lush -- far more naturalistic and wild than "urban". *ponders*
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the book are when we see the characters invested in their relationships. Oddly, I found the sex underwritten in the midst of excessively ornate language. Interesting how she pulled that off.I'm also reading Robert Hass' Sun Under Wood right now and I wonder if it was an influence. The words and tone match too perfectly.
However, the tone is a problem I have. The tone of the novel is unrelentingly exultant. It doesn't waver. It OUGHT TO waver with the horror and grief and loss the characters face, but they wave off all their troubles despite becoming indigent in their obsessions...which is an interesting and strange way to romanticize an interesting and strange, brutal and transcendent sexually transmitted disease.
I wish this had been less extravagant and more coldly clinical in places, less blowhard and more rough scrape of reality. I mean, I still liked it all right, but in the end, four people fuck a lot and meet up in Japan. A little more substance to their lives would've made this a much more satisfying read.
Cataloging note: I don't understand calling it "urban fantasy" even if it is about a city. It's too lush. Even its grit is lush -- far more naturalistic and wild than "urban". *ponders*
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LibraryThing member joeyreads
Made for a marvelous summer fever dream, but summer is over, and I'm not done and have lost my place in what was going on. Maybe next summer..
LibraryThing member calmclam
Beautiful and meandering. This is the story of a city (Palimpsest) which can only be found by those who know where it is...and you can only learn that by sleeping with someone who's been there before, and it's the story of the city's inhabitants.
I found that sometimes I wanted the story to be more
I found that sometimes I wanted the story to be more
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streamlined, but the descriptions are a lot of fun and as long as you don't mind taking a roundabout trip, the journey is fun. Show Less
LibraryThing member crystallyn
Gorgeous, lush, erotic, fantastical. I was drawn into the world and felt as desperate to know it as the characters themselves did. Valente's writing is always beautiful and Palimpsest is no exception. Add this and all her other books to your reading list, ASAP!
LibraryThing member charitywoosley
This books is on my "Worst Books of All Time" list. One is so busy digging past all the metaphors and flowery language that one never quite can get to the depth of its story.
I really just hated this book so much I couldn't finish it.
I really just hated this book so much I couldn't finish it.
LibraryThing member Aerrin99
Palimpsest is a novel thick with wonderful language and detailed description and twisting, twining metaphors. Unfortunately, it's so thick that it was impossible for me to wade through it to find characters, plot, or world worth caring about. I struggled through the first hundred pages of this
I like unique language and I love interesting visuals. But I don't want them to get in the way of my story. I won't be picking up Valente again.
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novel before I admitted to myself that I was hating it. The turning point was a paragraph 7 lines long which boiled down to 'He visited all the neighbors to ask if anyone had seen his wife', and which I had to read 3 times in order to process properly.I like unique language and I love interesting visuals. But I don't want them to get in the way of my story. I won't be picking up Valente again.
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LibraryThing member ofstoneandice
It's hard for me to acknowledge that Valente's work is not for everyone, but it would be a lie if I were to say otherwise. For some, her fantastical imagery is too heavy, like swallowing stones, but for the children of poetry and monsters it is our bread and water. It is what thickens our blood and
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makes us strong. And much like the immigrants of Palimpsest, to meet another who has walked along these same bright paths is almost to face a mirror. There is a known quality to them that pulls at us ...more It's hard for me to acknowledge that Valente's work is not for everyone, but it would be a lie if I were to say otherwise. For some, her fantastical imagery is too heavy, like swallowing stones, but for the children of poetry and monsters it is our bread and water. It is what thickens our blood and makes us strong. And much like the immigrants of Palimpsest, to meet another who has walked along these same bright paths is almost to face a mirror. There is a known quality to them that pulls at us like a memory, like calling to like. Palimpsest is a call out to all those who have loved a city, real or imagined, and sought out those who have known such fierce, desperate love as well. Show Less
LibraryThing member elmyra
This is a quiet, unassuming book. It starts out quietly, builds slowly but steadily, until you realise that it's eaten its way into your mind and just won't let go. The ending doesn't feel quite like closure, and there are some political issues, but the universe is wonderful.
Bechdel: Pass, easily.
Bechdel: Pass, easily.
LibraryThing member Jannes
A remarkable work that took my breath away. Its flowery prose might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if it is, then by the stars you're in for a treat.
This is what fantastic fiction ought to be: evocative, sometimes provocative, but above all so beautiful it almost hurts as it fills you with
This is what fantastic fiction ought to be: evocative, sometimes provocative, but above all so beautiful it almost hurts as it fills you with
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yearning and wonder. Show Less
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 2010)
Lambda Literary Award (Finalist — 2010)
Locus Award (Finalist — Fantasy Novel — 2010)
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Adult Literature — 2010)
Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2010)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009-02-24
Physical description
367 p.; 5.17 inches
ISBN
9780553385762