Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
16th out of 16 books
—
1 voter
The Grass-Cutting Sword
by
Catherynne M. Valente (Goodreads Author)
A new novel by the author of The Labyrinth and Yume No Hon, The Grass-Cutting Sword explores the strange landscape of primeval Japan, from the Heaven-Spanning Bridge to the hellish Root-Country: the troubled trickster Susanoo-no-Mikoto, god of wind and storms, is banished from heaven and wanders the earth, lost in human form, in search of his demonic mother and charged wit...more
Paperback, 126 pages
Published
August 15th 2006
by Prime Books/Wildside Press
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
283)
I wasn't sure, from the description, how much I would like this one. People warned of gore -- which, yes, there is here, mostly the gore of childbirth and creation -- but oddly that didn't bother me. It's poetic, like Yume No Hon, but less heavy with it, and with a plot that's both more important to the experience of the book and easier to follow. Valence echoes the structure of myth well, while bringing her own insight to it, her own images and preoccupations.
One review I read was confused that...more
One review I read was confused that...more
First off, this book is not for everyone. That being said, I kind of loved it. The more I'm thinking about it -- the experience of it, the story itself, the creation myth within/creating the story -- the more I'm loving it. It's a short little book, broken into sections, and it really oftentimes reads like really lush prose poetry, other times it's a kind of Japanese "just-so" story told from the point of view of the fallen storm-god-turned-mortal-man, hunting for a dragon/snake/beast who has ea...more
1 like · like · see review
view 1 comment
The Grass-Cutting Sword is a metaphor, comprised almost entirely of exquisite imagery, and every single word has obviously been chosen with a poet’s eye for sound and sight. It is a creation myth and a Grendel for the nuclear age, a story of beginnings and endings, of beauty and hideousness. The images Catherynne M. Valente chooses in The Grass-Cutting Sword will haunt your nightmares and inform your dreams. Close your eyes, for instance, and envision the monster of the tale from this excerpt of...more
Weirdest. Dragon story. Ever.
Don't read this book if you're feeling queasy. It's probably really amazing poetic imagery, but it didn't do good things for me.
I don't really recommend this one. Maybe if you are really, really into Japanese mythology, this would be cool. But it wasn't for me.
I still want to read other books by this author, and I'm hoping that some of the others will be more to my taste.
Don't read this book if you're feeling queasy. It's probably really amazing poetic imagery, but it didn't do good things for me.
I don't really recommend this one. Maybe if you are really, really into Japanese mythology, this would be cool. But it wasn't for me.
I still want to read other books by this author, and I'm hoping that some of the others will be more to my taste.
This book took me forever to get through. It is really much more poetry than fiction, and I can't say that I am that into poetry... For a long time I was just slogging through it, because I really enjoyed a reading the author gave of one of her other books. In particular I found the parts from the perspective of the 8 headed dragon (and the sisters he ate) really hard to get though, though more because of the formatting than the gruesomeness. If nothing else, though, you have give the author the...more
This is my favourite book so far contained in the "Myths of Origin" collection. The story follows the journey of a storm-god forced into a human body and charged with slaying an eight headed dragon. Chapters alternate between the god and the daughters that are each head of the dragon. Admittedly I loved the god's chapters the most. The formatting of the dragon chapters could be difficult to get through. All in all very intriguing and beautifully written.
It's a novel, but I have to label it as poetry. This story, of 8 maidens, a serpent, and a fallen storm-god, is a beautiful prose-poem with enough twisting turns and threads to make it more than worth reading over and over in order to fully understand it. Absolutely beautiful, and definitely fun.
My last Valente book of that last week, but this one was delightful. I love getting into the mythology of Gods, how they interact and grow, the shifting, lovely loyalties. It was very twisted and beautiful to get the pov of all the girls and the monsters as well.
Valente's beautiful language and weird plot combine to make a book that is and is not about folklore, universal truths, and women's rights/sisterhood.
I love Valente, but the writing tactic overwhelmed the storytelling for me, all the parentheses and dialogue of the snake heads.... it gave me a headache.
I read this as part of the Myths of Origin omnibus. It's an interesting reinterpretation of Shinto mythology but not to my taste.
Sep 24, 2008
Zan
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who are really into booger deities
Shelves:
recycling
Um... Gross?
I mean, yeah, mythomagical archetypal gross, but still-eeeew!
Valente and Okri should get together and spew eloquent rhapsodies of vomitous ancestral phlegm incarnate-hopefully until whatever haplessly interesting plot they had gets completely gnashed to oozy, icky bits and can rest in some semblance of peace.
I mean, yeah, mythomagical archetypal gross, but still-eeeew!
Valente and Okri should get together and spew eloquent rhapsodies of vomitous ancestral phlegm incarnate-hopefully until whatever haplessly interesting plot they had gets completely gnashed to oozy, icky bits and can rest in some semblance of peace.
Read and loved both volumes of "The Orphans Tales." so naturally I want to read more!
Got this out of library, so it should be read soon!
Currently reading this, and it is predictably wonderful. Fantasy with a decided Japanese feel to it. Very odd book,but excellent.
Got this out of library, so it should be read soon!
Currently reading this, and it is predictably wonderful. Fantasy with a decided Japanese feel to it. Very odd book,but excellent.
You can read my review of this novel at Green Man Review.
Jun 18, 2013
Geneva Rockeman
marked it as to-read
Jun 14, 2013
Negheen Sanjar
marked it as to-read
Jun 12, 2013
Robin
marked it as to-read
Jun 06, 2013
Kaitlin
marked it as to-read
May 31, 2013
Noel
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Anders Bruun Olsen
marked it as to-read
May 16, 2013
Sarah
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Adam
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Amy
added it
May 14, 2013
Sara Light-waller
marked it as to-read
May 11, 2013
Weasel
marked it as to-read-fic
Apr 28, 2013
Alicja Mielczarek
marked it as to-read
Apr 11, 2013
Austin Williams
marked it as to-read
Apr 08, 2013
Em
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Catherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and cam...more
More about Catherynne M. Valente...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Of course, Storm-Lord! But why would a god marry a poor farm girl?" asked one of the bound novices, his voice thin and chirping as an insect.
"All things must eventually mate," I shrugged, "having been cast into a man's flesh I must do as flesh does. And it hardly matters whether one mates with a woman or a rock or a river - the end result is the same. Once all the world wed stones and trees - but this is a degenerate age, and no one keeps to tradition.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
"All things must eventually mate," I shrugged, "having been cast into a man's flesh I must do as flesh does. And it hardly matters whether one mates with a woman or a rock or a river - the end result is the same. Once all the world wed stones and trees - but this is a degenerate age, and no one keeps to tradition.”
