Deathless in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Mar 21, 2012 Nataliya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, location-is-the-true-protagonist, war-s-inhuman-face, valente-whimsical-magic, 2012-reads, awesome-kickass-heroines

I name Catherynne Valente an honorary Slav. She has a Slavic soul, somehow; otherwise how could she have written this book?!

This is a book about love. And life. Death. War. Loss. Hope. Despair. "Life is like that."

I grew up with these characters - in so many folk tales, in so many movies. The story is always the same. The evil Koschei the Deathless and Baba-Yaga, the kidnapped Marya Morevna (or Yelena, or Vasilisa), the brave Ivan who rescues her... These stories have been told countless ti I name Catherynne Valente an honorary Slav. She has a Slavic soul, somehow; otherwise how could she have written this book?!

This is a book about love. And life. Death. War. Loss. Hope. Despair. "Life is like that."

I grew up with these characters - in so many folk tales, in so many movies. The story is always the same. The evil Koschei the Deathless and Baba-Yaga, the kidnapped Marya Morevna (or Yelena, or Vasilisa), the brave Ivan who rescues her... These stories have been told countless times. But what if?... What if Koschei is the Tsar of Life? And what if he loves Marya and she loves him back? And what if there is a neverending tug of war in their tumultous marriage? And what if the story happens in Soviet Union in 1920s-1940s? And finally, most importantly, what if you, the reader, knew that at some point you would have to see Leningrad in 1942?

"No one is now what they were before the war. There’s just no getting any of it back."

For me, this was, above anything, the story of war and loss. The war between mythical country of Buyan and Viy, the Tsar of Death. The Great Patriotic War between Soviet Union and Germany. The Leningrad blockade . Leningrad was under siege by the Nazis from 1941 to 1943 - arguably the most lethal siege in history. Thousands of people froze and starved to death - several hundred per day in the winter of 1942. People ate sawdust bread, rats, pets, and each other. People died right on the streets. And yet the city - the Leningraders - never gave up.

"A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead."

Chapter 23 of this book tore my heart to pieces. As you may guess, this is the part with the blockade. I will not say much more except for quotes and real blockade pictures. They speak for themselves.

"That night, she burned all the books in the attic for heat. She carried them down, one by one, because December ate up her strength. She lit them in the stove while they all huddled around and put out their hands. Last one in was the Pushkin, and she cried, but without tears, because you cannot have tears without bread."

"A ration card says, This much life we have allotted you. It says, This much death we can keep from your door. But no more. It says, In Leningrad there is only so much life to go around. It says, The only thing not rationed in Leningrad is death."

(This picture is from the diaries of Tanya Savicheva, a young girl during the blockade. Each page is about a loved one's death. The last says, "Everybody died. Only Tanya is left". She died shortly after.)

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This story is also about love. Its allures and pitfalls, its rewards and struggles. It's about the secret and private world of marriage. About hurting the one you love. About choices and sacrifices. About power and submission. Love is a war. "No one is now what they were before the war." And "[...]after love, no one is what they were before."

"A marriage is a private thing. It has its own wild laws, and secret histories, and savage acts, and what passes between married people is incomprehensible to outsiders. We look terrible to you, and severe, and you see our blood flying, but what we carry between us is hard-won, and we made it just as we wished it to be, just the color, just the shape."

The story Valente weaves is poignant and gut-wrenchingly beautiful. It is poetic and melodic like Russian folklore from which it draws inspiration. It is humorous (albeit darkly so) and bittersweet, intimate and hopeful, both simple and complex at the same time. It is strange and captivating. It is about loss and friendship and betrayal. There is no good or evil, black or white. In this, it's very human. And I love it.

We see the mystical world of Slavic folklore, beautifully captured by Valente. Rusalkas and leshy, firebirds and prophetic birds, flying mortar and pestle and Yaga's hut on chicken legs. The "real world" parts of the story are very well done as well, the mixture of realism and mysticism. The domovye - house imps - form committees and discover the advantages of filing claims over traditional mischief.

“You must see,” chirped Chairman Venik finally, “that a communal house requires communal domoviye, and communal domoviye require a committee. We are happy to do our part! It is a new world, and we do not wish to be left behind.”

Marya is denied the red Pioneer scarf - and carries it in her heart. Koschei comes to get her - and she follows him without thinking twice since in the Soviet Union "When they come for you, her mother had once warned, you have to go. It’s not about wanting or not wanting." Real life Party slogans permeate the mythical country of Buyan. Zmei Gorynych, the legendary three-headed dragon, deals with bureaucracy of the Purges. And ~~Baba~~ Comrade Yaga teaches Marya cold but real lessons - which can be so aptly summed up by Comrade Koschei:

"The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel still sit on the hill, and drink vodka, and wear black furs, and slurp borscht by the pail, like blood. Children may wear through their socks marching in righteous parades, but Papa never misses his wine with supper. Therefore, it is better to be strong and cruel than to be fair. At least, one eats better that way. And morality is more dependent on the state of one’s stomach than of one’s nation."

And, of course, this book is also about the power of stories which play out a certain way because that's how they are supposed to play out. Some things are inevitable - or are they? Can you change fate? Does it matter if you try?

For it to happen the way it always happens [...] The Church always splits. Ukraine always withers in a poison wind [...] You could tell your tale differently this time, I suppose. But you won’t [...] You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast. You will always run away with her. You will always lose her. You will always be a fool. You will always be dead, in a city of ice, snow falling into your ear. You have already done all of this and will do it again.

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Incredible, masterful, poignant, beautiful book that will always stay with me. Chapter 23 still haunts me. 5 stars is not enough.

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Recommended by: Jessie (Ageless Pages Reviews) ...more

658 likes · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2015 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, 2016-shelf, urban-fantasy

Re-Read 7/13//18:

Valente is always worth re-reading IMHO. And other than making a few grand sweeping comments about birds and husbands, I have nothing to add to this marvelous piece of literature. The land of the dead versus the land of life in Russia. Mythology versus societal upheaval. Love, love, love, and none of it innocent.

Just like Russia. ;)

Original Review:

Breathtaking, quintessential Valente, making what might be a fairy tale into a gorgeously Russian love story between one unlucky gir ...more

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Jul 13, 2018 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Slavic folklore is just as interesting and rich as any other and Catherynne M. Valente knows how to bring it to life.

We enter this magical world in 1918, when the protagonist, Marya, is just 10 years old. And we leave it, in the same place (though everything has changed) in 1952.
Marya lives in a house in Petrograd (which is Leningrad, which is St. Petersburg - the name usually telling you when you are there as the city has been renamed in different periods throughout Russian history). Since "th Slavic folklore is just as interesting and rich as any other and Catherynne M. Valente knows how to bring it to life.

We enter this magical world in 1918, when the protagonist, Marya, is just 10 years old. And we leave it, in the same place (though everything has changed) in 1952.
Marya lives in a house in Petrograd (which is Leningrad, which is St. Petersburg - the name usually telling you when you are there as the city has been renamed in different periods throughout Russian history). Since "the people" now rule Russia, it is considered almost sinful to own a house alone so Marya and her mother (her father and borthers having perished in WWI) are forced to share the house with 11 other families.
Marya is a the youngest of four remaining girls and a wild and clever child. She loves stories and animals and has her own head. One day, she looks out of a window and sees a bird turn into a man and thus her story truly begins. She becomes Koschei's bride and enters different magical realms, fights wars, meets and even befriends creatures of Slavic folklore, braves tests, falls in love, despairs.

Koschei, for those who don't know, is an archetypal male antagonist, described mainly as abducting women (usually the wife of the story's hero). Koschei cannot be killed by conventional means because his soul (or death) is hidden separate from his body inside a needle, which is in an egg, which is in a duck, which is in a hare, which is in an iron chest (sometimes the chest is crystal and/or gold), which is buried under a green oak tree, which is on the island of Buyan in the ocean. As long as his soul is safe, he cannot die. And yes, I'm sure this is where J.K. Rowling got her idea for Horcruxes. This is also where he gets his surname "the Deathless".
Koschei is sometimes portrayed as old, and sometimes as young, but always as tall and thin. Sometimes one half of his body is young and beautiful and the other half is old and ugly. He has as many faces as there are ways to spell his name.
But, much like in my previous book (The Master and Margarita), this story shows Koschei in a slightly different light. What if the undying is simply looking for his soulmate? What if his supposed cruelty is only a metaphor for what love can do to us, depending on the circumstances - or what the people we love usually do to us by lying or being unfaithful?

This rendition of the classical fairytale "The Death of Koschei the Deathless" is simultaneously a modern twist on an old tale (all while staying faithful to the classic characters) and a history lesson. The author brings to life Russia during some very turbulent times. Thus, there is spying and reporting on neighbours, bureaucrary, revolution, going from one state form to the next. People starve and the almost incredibly cold Russian winter takes care of the rest. Just think about the difficulty for any given person to keep up with the ever-changing political landscape and demands from whoever/whatever ruled them! Marya was a great way to drive home this point as she was born in one world, a child in the next, a teenager in yet another, and then an adult in yet another. Who are you when your roots are constantly unearthed?!
As a counter-balance, there are also lush forests and glittering ponds (Russia has some astonishingly beautiful places) and the world is inhabited not only by humans but also by quirky Domovoy (house elves), seductive Rusalkas (a type of mermaid) and Vilas (nymphs), treasure-hoarding dragons, the cunning Likho (the personification of bad luck) with her perfect timing, transforming birds of all kind, Baba Yaga (grandmotherly witch that is also Koschei's sister) as well as the Lord of Life and the Lord of Death themselves.

Once again, Valente's enchanting writing style was the perfect frame for this lively tale of love and loss, war, identity and passion (just look at the quotes I've highlighted). The way she writes shows how much she, herself, cares for the tales she spins, and her writing style has a certain poetry to it that always captivates me.
It's a wonderful tale of magic but also of horrifying real-life events, teaching the readers as much about the fantastic as about the mundane. ...more

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Aug 02, 2015 Robyn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015

Communist Russia meets fairy tale meets lyrical writing equals an absolute gem of a book. There's really not much I can say; just go read it for yourself!

One of my favourite passages from it, which I think illustrates the flavour of the story:

“The old order, it is good for the old. A farmer wants his son to be afraid of beautiful women, so that he will not leave home too soon, so he tells a story about how one drowned his brother’s cousin’s friend in a lake, not because he was a pig who deserve ...more

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Jun 07, 2016 Emma rated it liked it

I didn't really like this book. I should have but I didn't. I liked reading about the different magical creatures of Russian folklore, but also felt my lack of prior knowledge about it, left me on the outside. I thought the way the cultural history of Russia changed the way the magical creatures behaved and thought was interesting and the way the history was interwoven in the story. For example, traditionally each home has its own house imp. Here we have a committee of house imps.

The main relat ...more

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Jul 04, 2018 Lata rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-f-h, auth-f, x2018-read

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I am a fan of Catherynne M. Valente's work, for her writing, for her ability to conjure wonderful images with her words, and for her biting humour. To be honest, I've really only been able to enjoy these qualities when I've listened to this author's work, rarely while reading it.
So, Valente has based her story on the folktale of Koschei the Deathless and his relationship with Marya Morevna. Valente transports the story to pre-Revolution Russia, and t ...more

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Oct 22, 2014 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy-challenge-2015

What a gloriously vivid book! This was a wonderful blend of Russian folklore and Russian history and I thought the author did a brilliant job of bringing it to life, while always giving it a dash and flair that reminded you that it was myth. It was brilliantly imagined and beautifully executed. In other words, it was SO cool!!!! I loved every minute of it and I'm definitely reading more by this author. Brilliant!! ...more

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