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This is kind of a departure for LeGuin. She writes the ancient pre-Roman world here. This book is based on Vergil's Aeneid, told from the perspective of a very minor character, the daughter of the king of Latium, who is part of the prize Aeneas must win when he comes to Italy to found his kingdom. This book has absolutely broken my heart, and I'm finding it hard to articulate why.
In Vergil's poem, Lavinia doesn't even get to speak a single line, but here, she's the storyteller, the one with the second sight. And Vergil visits her, three times, and so she knows she's part of the story, knows that she owes her existence to a poet and that everything that happens, happens because he wrote it that way. But she loves Aeneas, she is meant to be with him, and she only gets to be happy with him for not even three years before he dies. And she lives out her life, she's a mother and then a grandmother, a queen who is loved by her people. But at the end, she doesn't get to die and be with her husband in their afterlife. She is given this sort of sybil existence, like a bird, a soul with wings, and she sees what's to come, the building of Rome as a great city.
I am so heartbroken by this book, I can't even say. Lavinia knows she's a character in a story, knows that she's only made of words. But that doesn't make her life and her loves less real. It wounds me that she doesn't get to die like every other human, like everyone else in her own story.
When I think about it hard, I think that part of the message of this book is that Lavinia is just this little life touched by great events. Her story goes untold by Vergil, untold by history. And that's the way every single one of us lives. I don't care if the Lavinia of this book is a "real" person or not, because she is real to me. And that's why the ending upsets me so much, because she had this real life, so why isn't she allowed a real death?
I don't know, I'm just upset. If anyone else has read this book, please let me know, I'd like to know what you think of it. If you haven't read it--well, I don't know if I can recommend it or not. Which I hate to say about a Le Guin book. If you've never read Le Guin before, this is not the book to start with.
I don't know what I'm going to read next. I think tomorrow I may very studiously do the crossword.
In Vergil's poem, Lavinia doesn't even get to speak a single line, but here, she's the storyteller, the one with the second sight. And Vergil visits her, three times, and so she knows she's part of the story, knows that she owes her existence to a poet and that everything that happens, happens because he wrote it that way. But she loves Aeneas, she is meant to be with him, and she only gets to be happy with him for not even three years before he dies. And she lives out her life, she's a mother and then a grandmother, a queen who is loved by her people. But at the end, she doesn't get to die and be with her husband in their afterlife. She is given this sort of sybil existence, like a bird, a soul with wings, and she sees what's to come, the building of Rome as a great city.
I am so heartbroken by this book, I can't even say. Lavinia knows she's a character in a story, knows that she's only made of words. But that doesn't make her life and her loves less real. It wounds me that she doesn't get to die like every other human, like everyone else in her own story.
When I think about it hard, I think that part of the message of this book is that Lavinia is just this little life touched by great events. Her story goes untold by Vergil, untold by history. And that's the way every single one of us lives. I don't care if the Lavinia of this book is a "real" person or not, because she is real to me. And that's why the ending upsets me so much, because she had this real life, so why isn't she allowed a real death?
I don't know, I'm just upset. If anyone else has read this book, please let me know, I'd like to know what you think of it. If you haven't read it--well, I don't know if I can recommend it or not. Which I hate to say about a Le Guin book. If you've never read Le Guin before, this is not the book to start with.
I don't know what I'm going to read next. I think tomorrow I may very studiously do the crossword.
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Date: 2008-05-08 02:15 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 02:44 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 02:33 am (UTC)From:next you are going to read Blood and Iron or Carnival by Elizabeth Bear or Melusine or The Bone Key by Sarah Monette or The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch or The Snake Agent by Liz Williams or...
wait. I feel like you've read some of those books already.
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Date: 2008-05-08 02:46 am (UTC)From:I've had a lot of upsetting books lately (at least, upsetting to me). I think I need to do the crossword for a day or two. But then I will go looking for some of these, maybe.
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Date: 2008-05-08 02:54 am (UTC)From:Blood and Iron is... ok. Blood and Iron can be very upsetting. Whiskey and Water, which is... er... another book in that series, could be the sequel if you wanted to go there, is upsetting but in a way that makes me squee. It's the one I reread when I know there are things I need to write but I don't remember how.
Carnival is twisty and tricky and GOOD, but hard. Chewy.
Black Ships is sad.
Lies of Locke Lamora is a romp.
Melusine is complicatedd and twisty and weird, and the next two books make it better, a bt, but they're all three pretty brutal.
Companion to Wolves, which is ebear and Sarah Monette, is upsetting and brutal and WONDERFUL, and rocks all of the fuzzy animal companion conventions, and is so... weird and good and harsh and... I recommend that one, but it's pretty brutal in places too.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 02:48 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 03:20 pm (UTC)From:I have no suggestions. Although, I did find out that Ed Norton is doing a movie version of Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem which I love!!! I don't know if it's your type of book (murder mystery/gangsters/told in first person by an orphan with tourettes). I think it's well written but it's not like any book I usually read.