Unruly Stacks wants to read Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
A glorious retelling of the Russian folktale Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless from Catherynne M. Valente, set in a …
I've seen some folks claim this book felt like reading (or listening to) a school stage play, and while I find that comparison unkind, I can't deny there's a grain of truth to it. I'm inclined to say there's something rather Beckett-ish about it (though maybe there's a better comparison; I'm not well versed in live theater), but in my most recent relisten, I found that an endearing trait. The purple-ish prose of our myriad narrators works well if you imagine them as actors on a stage, speaking to the audience while the actions they describe are performed behind them. The ethereal (ha) quality of their descriptions, and even of the historical interludes (and isn't it telling that their perceptions of reality are no less varied than those of the ghosts) works so well as 'detached' narrators.
All in all, I loved this reread, and look forward to enticing my …
