River, tell me a lesson about...

Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams

Catherynne M. Valente

I've just finished reading Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams by Catherynne M Valente.  This little novel is about a hermit-woman called Ayako who lives in the shadow of a five-layered pagoda on the side of a mountain, and dreams up other selves and existences. 

Yes, this is one of Valente's "weird ones", in the best possible way that a story can be weird.  As usual her poetic prose is richly sensual, thick with wonderful images, and the ideas she weaves into the story are just as wonderful -- Oedipus and the sphinx's riddles; quantum physics (which, yes, I can wrap my head around); the fall of Troy and of her village at the same time; a Babylonian creation myth that becomes her own story of creation/reshaping.  And more, of course. 

I want to know what could have been spun from the lumpy black silk... perhaps I already know.

I shan't share the true beauty of this novel, the line near the end that brought a smile of sadness and happiness to my face -- that lesson is there, waiting, for the interested to learn, and I shan't spoil it.  Suffice to say that this is a beautiful, moving tale, one that shall stay with me for a very long time, and I highly recommend it to any reader who (a) was intrigued by my review (obviously; I aim to intrigue), and (b) wants something very different to what they'll find on a high street bookshelf.

Minor point of interest:  The book comes in two cover-colours -- red or blue -- with a small variation in the texts of each.  Mine was actually the blue one, but the amazon-vox connection only gave me the red one.