The Spindle of Necessity
2012
First Published
3.00
Average Rating
300
Number of Pages
Part of Series
The story is built through the parallel love stories of Anglitora and her affair with a Chinese cartographer, Shun-Yuan, on the one hand, and the older, sadder, more complex love of Prester John and Hagia on the other. We follow the slow encroachment of reality on the fantastic inhabitants of the kingdom and the narrowing of the unmeasured spaces they survived in. We also read the cartographer's tale, and come to understand the impulse to know the truth, even at the cost of wonders. Prester John and Hagia reconcile as the creatures of the Kingdom prepare to leave the world. When the time comes, Hagia and her step-daughter leave their lovers behind. Prester John's faith in Christ and love of the human world cost him his kingdom and his love, but the parting is bittersweet. The half-bird daughter leaves behind a child for the cartographer to raise in his world of maps and certainty, and that child is the many-times-great grandmother of the monk's guide. The tree of books and the downy hair of the native guide are the only remaining signs that once the Kingdom was more than a story.
Avg Rating
3.00
Number of Ratings
2
5 STARS
50%
4 STARS
0%
3 STARS
0%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
50%
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Author
Catherynne M. Valente
Author · 68 books
Catherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and camphor wilds of Japan. She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.
