BOOKS as GIFTS #9:TONGUECAT

Tonguecat by Peter Verhelst

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It begins with the world being thrust into cataclysmic cold. Everything freezes. Multitudes die. The end of the world is declared. The religious nuts come out of the woodwork.

"After the Great Winter, the Great Thaw set in." (page 62)

The resulting floods wreak their own havoc.

In the midst of natural chaos, comes the kind made by humans. Terrorists are plotting against the monarchy. The king, however, is preoccupied with finding the Girl-with-Red-Hair, even as his subjects revolt and his kingdom falters.

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Prometheus is introduced. Yes, the Titan Prometheus. He enters the city. He moves amongst the Tonguecats, storytelling prostitutes, and other people at the margins of society.

Prometheus is coming to bring fire, warmth, to a city locked in a new Ice Age.

From there, the story gets more convoluted and complex, with each of the eight main chapters being told by a different character, a different point of view. It all makes sense in the end, but takes some time and learning the rhythm of the tale to get there. The work is definitely worth the read.

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The tale is a meeting of worlds and ideas. It is cyberpunk meets fairy tale. It is St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avilà meets Greek mythology. It is the coarse meets the beautiful. It is death and destruction meets hope and resurrection.

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The prose of this novel, even in translation, or perhaps because of the translation, borders on the lyrical and poetic. My guess is that much of the credit goes to Verhelst himself, while some also goes to Sherry Marx's translation from the Dutch into English.

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If you love the imaginative worlds and visions created in William Gibson's Neuromancer or Jeff Noon's Vurt or Kathy Acker's Pussy, King of the Pirates or Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red or the surreal landscape of any Steve Erickson novel, then this is a book for you.

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File under:
*Cyberpunk-meets-fairytale

*Fantasy/science fiction (yes, it straddles both)
*Mythology
*Novel