The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden

Tales within tales within tales, all woven together like a magical, colorful tapestry depicting griffins, dead moon walkers, beastly princesses, princely beasts, pirate saints, Stars, snake gods, and so much more, all written in dark ink around the eyes of a little girl. Reading Valente's prose is like dreaming; during the act, you understand everything and think you see the truth, but when jerked back into reality, the stories fade together into a colorful, abstract image. It's pretty and meaningful, but you can't quite explain the story behind the image as well as you would like to.The book begins with a lonely little girl who lives in the palace gardens. A prince, curious and slightly afraid, meets the little girl, and soon after the two bond in a tender friendship punctuated by midnight meetings in which the girl spins her tales. Her tales are myths of creation, journeys, religion, death, and life, but not as we have heard before. Some of the myths are dark, involving death and violation, but others are whimsical and yearning. A number of fantastical creatures inhabit the pages, all interacting in some way or another, as if existing on a great web. They are spread apart along the plane of the web, but somehow, they are all directly or indirectly connected in this big tapestry of life.In the Night Garden is one of the most unique books that I've read in a long time; it's a book that you read for the stories and the prose, a book in which to meander, not a plot-dominated book that keeps you up at night with non-stop action. Valente's writing is flowery and imaginative, but purposeful. She chooses her words carefully and does not write for the sake of putting words down on paper. It takes a while to get used to the flow and rhythm of her prose, but once you do, you lose yourself in her words and stories, just like the little prince who loses himself in the girl's tales.Sometimes, the tales within tales within tales got confusing, and I lost track of where I was. I was tempted to even make a little map of what happens. But I think that while the book is composed of stories, the stories come together to result in the symphony. Would you attend a symphony orchestra to listen to just the violins or the cellos? Would you try to isolate each section, analyze the single instrument's contribution to the overall whole? Some may, but in doing so, we sacrifice the final symphony for just one instrument. No, we listen for the finished product, to rejoice in how so many different components come together to create beautiful music. That is how this book should be read, as a symphony of well crafted tales that create a more beautiful whole. Approach the book with patience and an open mind. It will all come together in the end as something lovely and unique, I promise.

In my High-School literature class, we were introduced to the idea of a "framework story". A framework story is one in which there are two stories, an outer story, and an inner story. The inner story is told by one or more of the characters of the outer story. Perhaps the example familiar to most people is the movie The Princess Bride, in which a sick boy is visited by his grandfather, who reads him a book. The bulk of the movie shows the events that happen in the book.The most complex framework story of all time is surely The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night, AKA The Arabian Nights. You probably think you know the basic story. Sultan Shahryar, after being betrayed by his wife (whom he beheads), marries a new woman every night for three years, then executes her the next morning. (Let us all pause briefly to agree that this is not a healthy response to marital infelicity.) But then along comes Scheherazade, who tells him a story, ending on a cliffhanger in the morning, thus compelling Shahryar to let her live another night so that he can hear what happens next. She keeps this up for 1001 nights. Shahryar, who has fallen in love with her, allows her to live and everyone lives happily ever after.If this is all you knew, you probably imagined The Arabian Nights as a series of 1001 stories told by Scheherazade. To learn your error, you need to read the complete work, such as the entirely remarkable translation The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal, Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments; Volume 1-10 by the entirely remarkable man Richard Francis Burton. You will learn that, at any point in The Arabian Nights, any old character may haul off and dive into a story, from which he or she may emerge on the next page or 100 pages later. It is an extraordinarily complex work of literature.The Arabian Nights is the only book I know like this, except for one. That exception is In the Night Garden (and presumably also the continuation In the Cities of Coin and Spice, which I have yet to read). Although Catherynne M. Valente doesn't mention The Arabian Nights anywhere in this book, I have to guess that it was to some degree in her mind as she wrote.In the gardens of the Sultan, an orphan girl lives. "Now this child had a strange and wonderful birthmark, in that her eyelids and the flesh around her eyes were stained a deep indigo-black, like ink pooled in china pots.". Everyone is afraid of her, believing her cursed. But a boy talks to her. She tells him that the black of her eyes is not a birthmark -- it is ink. On her eyelids and the skin around her eyes are stories written in black ink, stories so densely written that they appear solid black unless you look carefully. She has read the stories in the mirror. She agrees to tell the boy some of the stories. Her congress with the boy and the stories she tells him make up this book. And just like The Arabian Nights, the framework story is deeply nested. Every important character has a tale to tell. One way in which In the Night Garden differs from The Arabian Nights is that the stories connect up. (The Arabian Nights is a compilation of the work of many writers, and they don't generally continue each other's stories.) A character you read about in a story in the first quarter of In the Night Garden may show up as someone of significance in another story as you approach the end. The result is a book that feels very like The Arabian Nights, not just in structure, but also in the nature and feel of its fantasy.So, this brings me to my headline. Catherynne M. Valente is an author who makes her readers work. It is an effort to follow this complex story, and to remember all the characters who are going to show up again. One wishes she had placed a list of Dramatis Personae at the beginning, as some authors do, but it's hard to see how she could do that without spoiling the story. It is also an effort to read her prose. She writes beautifully, but not simply. While she is occasionally straightforward, more often she is subtle and twisty.I have mixed feelings about this. It is not just that she offers rewards proportionate to the work she demands. More than that, the demand itself makes the reward greater. Having worked for something makes the thing more precious than something given for nothing. Still, I confess that I am not eager to immediately read In the Cities of Coin and Spice. I probably will eventually, but right now I want a bit of a rest.

Some charmed books seem to expand to fill a universe. You know the world almost from the first paragraph and yet page after page it never ceases to surprise you. The Orphan's Tales is one of those, a long book of tales within tales for story tellers and dreamers and everyone who has ever enjoyed a fable or an Arabian night.

When a story like this comes along, it is like coming home. It wraps you and warms you and you just can't get enough. An amazing tale so beautifully told. It shall remain one of my favourites. Catherynne Valente, thank you for this treasure.

Kurzbeschreibung: Versteckt im Garten des Palastes lebt ein Mädchen. Man hat sie dahin verbannt um sie leichter ignorieren zu können. Denn einst wurde sie verzaubert. Man zauberte ihr Geschichten auf die Augenlider. Wer genau hinsieht erkennt darauf die Zeilen und Wörter, diese erzählen von Wundern, von Königen, von Meerjungfrauen und Biestern. Man glaubt etwas schlimmes passiere, wenn sie ihre Geschichten erzählt. Sie sieht so anders aus, mit ihren Tattoos um den Augenlidern, ihr Blick schmerzt, so traurig und leer. Doch nach langer Einsamkeit erscheint ein Junge, er ist mutig, er ist neugierig, er hört ihr zu...Meinung: Durch Bücher wie die Fairyland Reihe, habe ich Valente kennen gelernt, durch Deathless habe ich sie dann so richtig lieben gelernt. So wie mir, erging es sicherlich vielen. Da man ja auf die weiteren Fairyland Bände zu warten hat, habe ich mich anderen Romanen von ihr angetan. Zum Glück!The Orphan's Tales: In The Night Garden ist, wie man Valente kennt, kein sehr einfaches Buch. Besonders da es hier nicht für den Massenmarkt geschrieben wurde. Was dem Buch aber ganz besonders seine Würze gibt. Es kommt daher mit einem rauen Seitenschnitt und wunderbaren Illustrationen. Die Geschichte ist auch zunehmend komplexer als das, was ich bisher von ihr las.Ihr könnt es euch in etwa so vorstellen:Ihr lest das Buch, haltet also eine Geschichte in der Hand. - In dem Buch erzählt das Mädchen mit den beschrifteten Augenlidern einem Jungen ihre Geschichten. - In der Geschichte erzählt eine alte Frau einem Prinzen ihre Geschichte. - In dieser Geschichte bekommt sie von ihrer Großmutter eine Geschichte erzählt. - usw...Auch wenn es zuerst wahnsinnig verwirrend klingt, so schlimm ist es gar nicht. Es ergibt sich nur ein ungewohntes Erzählmuster. Denn alles geschieht unter dem Deckmantel der Grundstory, dass das Mädchen in ihrem Garten ihm von sich erzählt. Da es jedoch dann Geschichten in Geschichten sind, handelt es sich mehr oder weniger um einzelne Erzählungen die, wie ein Teppich, flüssig ineinander verwoben sind. Man erhält also keinen direkten Lesefluss einer durchgängigen, geraden, Handlung. Ab und zu springt man dann auch zurück in den Garten und erfährt wieder mehr über das Mädchen. Trotzdem macht aber alles seinen Sinn.Ich konnte dieses Buch wirklich genießen! Es ist wunderbar poetisch geschrieben und man erkennt eindeutig Valentes Schreibstil wieder. Dass man immer tiefer und tiefer in das Geheimnis und diese Welt eintaucht, als wenn man sich durch Lagen wühlt, hat mich richtig fasziniert. Man trifft auch auf altbekannte Geschichten wieder. So lässt Valente mal wieder alte Märchen mit in ihre Geschichten einfließen. Nicht nur europäische, auch asiatische oder russische. Daher habe ich mir dieses Buch auch als erstes zugelegt. Seit langem begeistern mich ja neue Interpretationen alter Märchen.Es ist sicherlich kein Buch für Kinder, so fantasievoll es auch ist. Ein wenig morbide ist es auch. Kann es euch aber nur wärmstens empfehlen wenn ihr auf mystische und märchenhafte Werke steht und keine Angst vor nicht ganz so einfach zu lesenden Büchern habt. Aber ist man erst einmal in diesem Buch drin und hat sich an den Erzählstil gewöhnt, dann merkt man wie man immer tiefer hineingezogen wird! Freue mich schon sehr auf Band 2, The Orphan's Tales: In The Cities of Coin and Spice.

Christmas gift. Recipient enjoyed it

I love her style of writing and this book, with it's intertwined stories, is glorious. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who enjoys folk tales or fantasy.