Title MORTAL LOVE
Author: Elizabeth Hand
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Year: 2004
Pages: 364
Pushed By: AnaStatus: keeper
LibraryThing InfoMortal Love for purchase at The Book DepositoryA part of me would rather not talk about MORTAL LOVE.
Y’all know the most beloved books sometimes render me incoherent. This incoherent state generally goes hand in hand with verbosity--I have tons to say, but I don’t know exactly how I want to say it.
This is sort of like that, but upside down. I loved MORTAL LOVE and am sure I could say tons about it in as incoherent a fashion as one might wish, but I rather want to keep it for me.
I’ve obviously chosen to ignore this impulse (spurred on, of course, but a The People Need To Know mentality), but I felt you should know where I stand.
Okay. Let’s get on with this.
Even though MORTAL LOVE came with the highly respected Seal of Ana’s Approval(TM), I found the first chapter so confusing, and so devoid of a thread I could follow through to a satisfying story, that it looked like dark days ahead. I braced myself to abandon it by Chapter Three, after which point I would conveniently forget to mention I had ever tried to read it.
I was in love with it by page 20.
The People Magazine review excerpted on the cover calls MORTAL LOVE "a delightful waking dream;" as accurate a descriptor as I could hope for, with the caveat that the reviewer clearly shares my somewhat unconventional definition of "delightful." The novel is often dark, often wretched, often disturbing. Delightful if you’re up for that sort of thing; depressing if you’re not.
The waking dream bit, though, needs no qualifier. The story is dreamlike in the extreme, merging one scene with the next as smoothly as water flowing over polished stones. It provides few concrete answers, yet it’s never confusing or opaque. Hand spells little out, but the book’s structure encourages the reader to make every connection she needs. We know exactly what’s going on, despite the lack of overt confirmation.
MORTAL LOVE is a book about madness and art and intercourse between worlds (in all senses of the word). Like all the best dreams, it’s wild and dangerous and barely controlled, with a bizarre and vivid story at its heart.
It spans centuries, commenting on art and the soul and the very nature of creation.
It’s rich and strange; grounded and ethereal.
It reminded me of
THE VINTNER’S LUCK, and of
THE NIGHT CIRCUS.
It made me want to create.
It has me halfway convinced I should have asked more from it, but I’m not sure what else it could have given me without undermining itself.
It refuses to get out of my head.
I think you should read it, sooner rather than later.
4 stars – loved it
Other Reviews: A Book A WeekPuss RebootsShelf Lovethings mean a lotYou Can Never Have Too Many BooksIf I missed yours, please let me know so I can add it to my list.
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