Lavondyss by Robert HoldstockMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
"...For all things in this world were born from the minds of men and since all men were mad, they were mad creatures, madly running."
"We are voyagers in our own living madness. What we have that these wretched creatures around us do not is freedom. The freedom to choose."
I type this with a pounding head, an aching heart, a mind still immersed in the strange and terrible world of Lavondyss. And the wonderful music of Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Tallis Fantasia" playing in my inner ear.
Lavondyss is a book that deserves ten stars out of the highest possible five star rating on Goodreads. I lack superlatives for a work of this genius, suffice it to say that if previous books left me teary-eyed, this one had me veritably WEEPING at 1:30 in the morning. I'm talking sobs muffled behind a pillow, a stream of waterworks, and a monster cold the following morning. *drinks from a steaming mug of hot calamansi juice*
This is one book whose back cover blurb does not even come close to the experience of it. Just as "Ghost-born-man-walking-on-water-telling-stories-dead-on-tree" does not even begin to tell one about Christ (a direct quote from the book!), so too does "Thirteen-year-old-girl-goes-into-a-parallel-universe-to-find-her-love-and-long-lost-brother" barely scratch the surface of what Lavondyss is.
Like its predecessor, it is about the power of myths and stories in shaping a country's story. But Lavondyss is so much grander and more epic, and more painful. Holdstock was a scientist before he wrote full time, and he brings that logic and clear-eyed vision to tell a story that seems so familiar... reminding one of Jungian archetypes and Joseph Campbell's monomyth. Lavondyss is "a place of the birth of a belief in the journey of the soul."
Holdstock's unique writing style may be off-putting for some readers, especially if one is used to a certain lyricism and romanticism in fantasy works.
There is nothing romantic about this book, despite the plot. And it is definitely for mature readers only.
"Wizard. Warlock. Druid. Scientist. I'm known by many names over the centuries, but they all mean one thing: echo of a lost knowledge."
Holdstock's scientific powers of observation and reportage make for words that cut like a scalpel in their brutal honesty, making this reader cringe in horror and feel sick to one's stomach at certain scenes that depict pre-historic customs. Lavondyss is a dark place, a difficult book to get through, not just in terms of language but also in terms of plot. But at the end, ah.... One feels like one has lived many lifetimes, many times over, and is just overwhelmed at the reminder that humanity goes on, that we have overcome darkness in the past and that we shall overcome the darkness of the gathering storm today.
I am reminded of a discussion I witnessed between friends, they were talking about the real meaning of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and I was blown away by how it is actually about that single life-defining choice, and how it haunts you, and how we are the ones who create meaning out of our lives. (I am paraphrasing the wisdom of Tata and Elsie!)
So the question in this book is, "If you entered a parallel universe expecting to succeed in your mission after only a week or month at most, and you realize it might take decades or an entire lifetime, and that you might not even succeed... do you push on your quest or do you give up and merely wait for death?"
"The naming of the land is important. It conceals and contains great truths. Your own name has changed your life."
It is no coincidence that Holdstock named his heroine "Tallis." She is so aptly named! Read this wonderful essay: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...). I particularly appreciated how Holdstock treated Tallis, how her language changed as she grew from girl to woman. I also recognize the great amount of research that went behind the writing of this award-winning novel.
"All of these things, simple evolutions of thought, began with the children, the new generation."
Below is a conversation between thirteen-year-old Tallis and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who shows up in the book (squeal of delight for fans of this composer!!!!!!!):
"A story, or a tune, comes as a piece of magic.. things change in life when you change them in stories."
"I assure you that they don't."
"I assure you that they do. Stories are fragile. Like people's lives. It only takes a word out of place to change them forever. If you hear a lovely tune, and then you change it, the new tune might be lovely too, but you've lost the first one."
"But if I stick to the first tune, then I've lost the second."
"But someone else might discover it. It's still there to be born."
"And the first tune isn't?"
"No, it has already come into your mind. It's lost forever."
"Nothing is lost forever. Everything I've known I still know, only sometimes I don't know that I know it. All things are known, but most things are forgotten. It takes a special magic to remember them."
"But you've lost your childhood. That can never come back."
"The child still lives in the man, even when you're as old as me."
This is a book that demands to be re-read! In another decade or so, I shall. What a treasure!!
View my review of Book 1
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