Palimpsest in On Paths Unknown

Apr 26, 2012 Tracy rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, library-books, adult-fiction, beautiful-and-indescribable

I finally finished this. I've been reading a little here and a little there for weeks and I finally finished this. I think it took me so long to read for the reasons Nataliya described in her review, the book alternately pulls you in and pushes you away. It is so filled with loss at times it was unbearable to go on. But I'm glad I did. For one thing the writing in this book is exquisite. Catherine Valente is a poet and it shows:

"She had dreamed heavily and the dream clung to her still-November

I finally finished this. I've been reading a little here and a little there for weeks and I finally finished this. I think it took me so long to read for the reasons Nataliya described in her review, the book alternately pulls you in and pushes you away. It is so filled with loss at times it was unbearable to go on. But I'm glad I did. For one thing the writing in this book is exquisite. Catherine Valente is a poet and it shows:

"She had dreamed heavily and the dream clung to her still-November had always been a prodigy of dreams. Her father, a librarian, had made her write them down, and perhaps this had been the beginning of the slim brown books which now numbered so very many. She dreamed in color, more than color, in shades of gold and scarlet impossible in the waking world. She dreamed in languages she did and did not know, she dreamed strange and wonderful faces, narratives of recursive complexity, and her recall was meticulous, detailed, perfect as a list."

"She often felt that she chased the ideal cup of coffee in her mind from table to table, the rich, thick, creamy coffee, spicy, bittersweet, that betrayed no hint of thinness or chemical flavoring, nothing less than total, fathomless devotion to the state of being itself. Every morning she pulled a delicate cup from its brass hook and filled it, hoping that it would be dark and deep and secret as a forest, and each morning it cooled too fast, had too much milk, stained the cup, made her nervous."

And that is the author writing prosaically about every day things...her descriptions of Palimpsest itself are fantastic, gorgeous. Palimpsest is a city, a sexually transmitted city. You fuck someone who has been there, who bears the tattoo of it's streets somewhere on their body and you awaken in Palimpsest. When you fall asleep again you wake up back in this world with the tattoo somewhere on your body. The next person you fuck (if they haven't already been there) catches the city and the tattoo from you. It's like a drug, you are addicted. You become desperate to go back. You will fuck anyone to go back. "But this is how you do it: through the body and into the world. You fuck; you travel. That sounds crude, and you know usually it is. It's usually ugly, and fat, and sweaty, and lonely. Luckily, it's also usually quick. But afterwards ... we find a place where we belong."

When you enter Palimpsest the first time you are bound to three strangers who have entered Palimpsest for the first time at the same instant as you. In order to emigrate in Palimpsest you have to find those three strangers and have sex with them, and enter Palimpsest together as a group. Some of these groups of four are splintered by the death of one of the four, some groups are destroyed because one of the four can't bear the city...it is too much, to beautiful, too colorful, too depraved. Some groups are never able to find each other and are so reduced to mindlessly coupling with anyone, anyone just to get back. The anguish of these lost souls trying to find their way back is like a tearing at the heart.

This book isn't for everyone obviously. Some will object to the sex, others don't care for poetry. Some will find it to dark and too sad. But it is beautiful. I'd like to find some of Cathrynne Valente's poetry I think. ...more

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Mar 08, 2017 Cecily marked it as to-read

Shelves: sexuality-gender-lgbtqi

Possibly echoes of Calvino and Winterson?

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Aug 10, 2015 John rated it it was amazing

This was the first Valente I've read. I really wasn't sure what to expect going in; to be honest I half expected to not like it. Based on what I'd heard, I was concerned that it would be all flowery prose with not enough meat to keep me interested. As you can see from the 5-star rating, this was not at all the case. There's enough substance here to back up the lyrical, poetic writing. The characters are likable and very believable; Palimpsest has just the right amount of worldbuilding to make th ...more

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Sep 07, 2024 Catherine Mustread rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, browsed

"If you're into really focused, plot-driven fantasy, the vague and dreamy world of Palimpsest might not be for you. But if you're into people made out of bees and horny trains that adhere to no schedule but their own, you might just be able to spend a few nights there." --Overdue podcast ...more

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