The Grass-Cutting Sword.
Feb. 17th, 2011 11:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyValente, Catherynne M. The Grass-Cutting Sword. New York: Prime Books, 2006.
I like Cat Valente's books a lot, and when I had a Powell's coupon a while back I happily added this one to the pile, since I intuited from the title--correctly--that it had something to do with the myths of Japan, the Kojiki legendarium.
I guess, in my reading, it's a week for mother complexes. The Grass-Cutting Sword tells two stories: that of Susanoo-no-mikoto, who begins the tale when he is cast down from the plain of Heaven by the sun his sister Ama-Terasu, who rules there and is displeased with him; he is her youngest brother. Susanoo-no-mikoto, the Storm-lord, lands in Izumo and finds himself turned mostly human; he also finds a peasant couple whose eight daughters have been devoured or taken in sequence by the great serpent that terrorizes the area. Susanoo-no-mikoto agrees to slay the serpent and regain their last daughter Kushinada and take her as his wife. But the serpent has its own identity, and its own hidden connection with Susanoo-no-mikoto via his mother Izanami, who died birthing her children by Izanagi, Susanoo-no-mikoto's hated father; it is in search of his beloved mother that Susanoo goes as well, even as Kushinada and her sisters also have their say.
Valente herself has talked about how often reviews of her books describe them as "dense" or "poetic" or as poetry in disguise, but what struck me about this book, particularly compared with some of her other works, is how light the prose is--surrealist, yes, but finely woven and light, like good silk. I honestly couldn't get through her most mythpunk book, The Orphan's Tales, perhaps because its structure is the story and I couldn't deal with the structure, but while this book doesn't have an entirely linear structure either, I found it much easier to follow. Equally importantly, the characters and their story are compelling, and the muscles Valente puts on the bones of the myth feel relevant and real. I liked it a lot.
I like Cat Valente's books a lot, and when I had a Powell's coupon a while back I happily added this one to the pile, since I intuited from the title--correctly--that it had something to do with the myths of Japan, the Kojiki legendarium.
I guess, in my reading, it's a week for mother complexes. The Grass-Cutting Sword tells two stories: that of Susanoo-no-mikoto, who begins the tale when he is cast down from the plain of Heaven by the sun his sister Ama-Terasu, who rules there and is displeased with him; he is her youngest brother. Susanoo-no-mikoto, the Storm-lord, lands in Izumo and finds himself turned mostly human; he also finds a peasant couple whose eight daughters have been devoured or taken in sequence by the great serpent that terrorizes the area. Susanoo-no-mikoto agrees to slay the serpent and regain their last daughter Kushinada and take her as his wife. But the serpent has its own identity, and its own hidden connection with Susanoo-no-mikoto via his mother Izanami, who died birthing her children by Izanagi, Susanoo-no-mikoto's hated father; it is in search of his beloved mother that Susanoo goes as well, even as Kushinada and her sisters also have their say.
Valente herself has talked about how often reviews of her books describe them as "dense" or "poetic" or as poetry in disguise, but what struck me about this book, particularly compared with some of her other works, is how light the prose is--surrealist, yes, but finely woven and light, like good silk. I honestly couldn't get through her most mythpunk book, The Orphan's Tales, perhaps because its structure is the story and I couldn't deal with the structure, but while this book doesn't have an entirely linear structure either, I found it much easier to follow. Equally importantly, the characters and their story are compelling, and the muscles Valente puts on the bones of the myth feel relevant and real. I liked it a lot.