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litprof's review
50 pages in, I feel nothing. Perhaps I could read it as an enactment of "Unknown Language": each sentence makes grammatical sense (usually), but put together, the meaning is unknown. I have a lot of patience for poetry, and was super excited about a queer speculative fiction text featuring Hildegard Von Bingen, but I cannot keep reading this book.
ganzfeldstate's review
5.0
I wish I had the words to do this book justice, or any kind of ability to write about my thoughts whatsoever, but I don’t. I devoured it in one day, in the somewhat unique position of staying where the book was written. I’m a very visual reader, tending to almost watch books rather than read them and I feel like the visions described are going to be haunting my dreams for a while. I had a sense of absolute elation as the novel reached its ending and I adored it. I will definitely keep coming back to this book.
lowercase_em's review
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
hannahheislr's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gore, and Blood
bluestarfish's review
5.0
A medieval visionary nun and polymath, Hildegard of Bingen, is a co-author of this book with Huw Lemmey with contributions from Bhanu Kapil and Alice Spawls (published in 2020). However this collaboration seems on par for a book descriped as speculative mysticism.
It's about a crisis that signals the end of the world (literal, with the occupation of the city by the heavenly forces) and a public worker who decides to flee after an interrogation by angels and is looking for something beyond this certain destruction of her world.
"Leaving behind the city of disgrace, I was [searching] for an unknown language through which we could consider grace."
Hildegard and Huw Lemmey are responsible for the main novel, Bhanu Kapil provides a short story in fragments of a world that used to be Earth and where fragments of Hildegard's unknown language are providing a revitilising force. The lecture notes at the end from Alice Spawls give context to the reimagination of Hildegard's story in the main section, with some history of the woman and her works.
It is a mesmerising collection of different things and the story is absorbing in it's weirdness and jarringness (we get SIM cards and medieval angels). Stories of grace are rare. I know Huw Lemmey's writings through his essays in his newletter so I am already a fan of his style and ways of exploring things and experiences. They are all trying to write about that which is difficult to put into words and I appreciated the effort and the output.
It's about a crisis that signals the end of the world (literal, with the occupation of the city by the heavenly forces) and a public worker who decides to flee after an interrogation by angels and is looking for something beyond this certain destruction of her world.
"Leaving behind the city of disgrace, I was [searching] for an unknown language through which we could consider grace."
Hildegard and Huw Lemmey are responsible for the main novel, Bhanu Kapil provides a short story in fragments of a world that used to be Earth and where fragments of Hildegard's unknown language are providing a revitilising force. The lecture notes at the end from Alice Spawls give context to the reimagination of Hildegard's story in the main section, with some history of the woman and her works.
It is a mesmerising collection of different things and the story is absorbing in it's weirdness and jarringness (we get SIM cards and medieval angels). Stories of grace are rare. I know Huw Lemmey's writings through his essays in his newletter so I am already a fan of his style and ways of exploring things and experiences. They are all trying to write about that which is difficult to put into words and I appreciated the effort and the output.
briancrandall's review
2.0
The absence of innovation is a vital element for telling stories to ourselves. The urge to innovate — to make things up, anew — is within us all, as doctors, writers or travellers. But this urge is far from pure, and a million pilgrims can walk the same tracks through the countryside and all arrive in different places. [203]
redheadreading's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
What a unique little book! Inspired by Hildegard of Bingen's visions, the Day of Judgement has come and the army of Angels have become agents of a repressive regime. Our narrator flees the oppressive city and journeys into the wilderness, experiencing queer love and divine transcendence. Would you believe me if I said this doesn't even do it justice?
I found it really interesting to note the moments where characters either find they are deeply able or unable to communicate, verbal/nonverbal etc. The combination of the high, Biblical language and some of the quite dystopian aspects of the world was really cool too. I'd love to read Hildegard's visions properly and then give this a reread to get even more out of it.
I, too, would like to lay down in the verdant moss and experience ecstatic connection with the universe.
I found it really interesting to note the moments where characters either find they are deeply able or unable to communicate, verbal/nonverbal etc. The combination of the high, Biblical language and some of the quite dystopian aspects of the world was really cool too. I'd love to read Hildegard's visions properly and then give this a reread to get even more out of it.
I, too, would like to lay down in the verdant moss and experience ecstatic connection with the universe.
0hn0myt0rah's review
5.0
Wow, what an astounding book. I was thinking the other day of what holy, religious, or ecstatic art could feel like nowadays and this answered it. A book about faith and grace, about having your prayers answered in an unwanted or unexpected way, about how the End Times never really leads to an end. A book about nature and our place in it and the place of God in it. Very queer, holding on to that queer and femme theology which still breaks thru to us even as it's repressed by those in power.
Obviously I'm Jewish so it hit differently for me but big up
Obviously I'm Jewish so it hit differently for me but big up
alex_jk's review
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The beautiful writing, and curious description of a city outside of any recognised time was fascinating to read- I wish this book was advertised more straightforwardly as the story was not at all what I expected, and although I enjoyed the poetry I was confused about its relation to the other content of the book.
jochno's review
5.0
[4.5 stars rounded up]
1. A truly stunning portrayal of the rapture
2. A must read even for people of other faiths like myself
3. It could maybe do with better curation.
I came into possession of this book on a whim having read an excellent passage posted on the instagram story of Guy Gunaratne, who was on the panel of an award for independent presses. I was surprised to see that it had only 13 reviews at the time I purchased it- this is possibly the least well-circulated book I have ever read, but definitely one of my favourites.
I will start with the negatives but I did absolutely love the book.
Disclaimer: this is just my opinion and I could well be proved wrong in the future, in fact I hope I am!
Indie press novels (or at least the bad ones) tend to hide their defficiences with pretension. They will sell themselves with promises of poly-hyphenated ontologies, ground-breaking experimentation etc. etc. and then fall flat to the point of rendering all other books with such taglines completely meaningless. This book seems to buck that trend. It was truly excellent and instead lessens itself through its pretensions.
In many ways from an outside perspective this seems to come from an anxiety of sorts; that one must cover one's back when writing for a small press for fear of appearing self-indulgent. By detailing in excrutiating detail why a book is at the forefront of experimentation and how the thought behind it is far more rigorous, tortured and obscure than you could possibly otherwise buy, it seeks to needlessly justify its own right to exist.
It doesn't need to. Its tagline on the back describing it as 'A mutant fiction of speculative mysticism' is to be quite frank meaningless jargon and more than a bit inaccurate- its bulk is fairly normal albeit very surreal and that is ok. It is in more meaningful terms a modern retelling of the book of Revelation set in a bizarre and almost atemporal city based around Barcelona, drawing inspiration from the work of Hildegard of Bingen. This book is good enough to stand up on its own without the need for fancy and slightly meaningless descriptions of itself.
I like reading the odd experimentally formatted book but its format must have a purpose. By fiddling with the format this book gains little. The first thirty pages consist of very good poetry, almost a standalone but fairly irrelevant and the auto-biographic intro which came after that was somewhat self-indulgent. It could have been fifteen pages of more to-the-point writing and it would be an instant five-stars. It was this pretentious first forty-fifty pages that made me worried for what would come next. At least I hadn't by this stage read the passage which had lured me to the book in the first place and so I knew better was to come.
What transpired next however more than made up for its early missteps. The prose that followed was lyrical, meditative and judicious in its application. The rapture is absurd, violent and bureaucratic in the extreme, its inefficiency hiding under a vicious front. It is described in incredible detail and is gripping in spite of its verbose passages (I read it in 2 days very easily).
Like a lot of biblical/magical realist style work, it marvels in its own allegorical inconsistencies and takes on a fable-like form. The writing here is quite idiosyncratic in its style and almost transcends prose to a mix of epic poetry and something else indescribably bureaucratic! I thought its portrayal of Queer Politics in religion was excellent. Within its form also lurk what appear to be subtle nods to philosophers/other authors: Deleuze, Foucault and Kant, Bruno Schulz, Brian Catling, Calvino, Marquez and a whole host of others. Its main glory comes in its originality: it renders an apocalypse that feels believable, righteous but at the same time wrong. It confuses, appals and amazes. It is truly psychedelic, I closed the book feeling glad that I had clicked on that random instagram story that day.
I am also sad, this is far better than a lot of work from far, far more succesful authors. Huw Lemmey certainly deserves his plaudits and although this piece does have a timeless element to it, I hope he is able to enjoy its success in his lifetime. He quite clearly has an exceptional command of his imagination and language and I can see him going on to have incredible success.
1. A truly stunning portrayal of the rapture
2. A must read even for people of other faiths like myself
3. It could maybe do with better curation.
I came into possession of this book on a whim having read an excellent passage posted on the instagram story of Guy Gunaratne, who was on the panel of an award for independent presses. I was surprised to see that it had only 13 reviews at the time I purchased it- this is possibly the least well-circulated book I have ever read, but definitely one of my favourites.
I will start with the negatives but I did absolutely love the book.
Disclaimer: this is just my opinion and I could well be proved wrong in the future, in fact I hope I am!
Indie press novels (or at least the bad ones) tend to hide their defficiences with pretension. They will sell themselves with promises of poly-hyphenated ontologies, ground-breaking experimentation etc. etc. and then fall flat to the point of rendering all other books with such taglines completely meaningless. This book seems to buck that trend. It was truly excellent and instead lessens itself through its pretensions.
In many ways from an outside perspective this seems to come from an anxiety of sorts; that one must cover one's back when writing for a small press for fear of appearing self-indulgent. By detailing in excrutiating detail why a book is at the forefront of experimentation and how the thought behind it is far more rigorous, tortured and obscure than you could possibly otherwise buy, it seeks to needlessly justify its own right to exist.
It doesn't need to. Its tagline on the back describing it as 'A mutant fiction of speculative mysticism' is to be quite frank meaningless jargon and more than a bit inaccurate- its bulk is fairly normal albeit very surreal and that is ok. It is in more meaningful terms a modern retelling of the book of Revelation set in a bizarre and almost atemporal city based around Barcelona, drawing inspiration from the work of Hildegard of Bingen. This book is good enough to stand up on its own without the need for fancy and slightly meaningless descriptions of itself.
I like reading the odd experimentally formatted book but its format must have a purpose. By fiddling with the format this book gains little. The first thirty pages consist of very good poetry, almost a standalone but fairly irrelevant and the auto-biographic intro which came after that was somewhat self-indulgent. It could have been fifteen pages of more to-the-point writing and it would be an instant five-stars. It was this pretentious first forty-fifty pages that made me worried for what would come next. At least I hadn't by this stage read the passage which had lured me to the book in the first place and so I knew better was to come.
What transpired next however more than made up for its early missteps. The prose that followed was lyrical, meditative and judicious in its application. The rapture is absurd, violent and bureaucratic in the extreme, its inefficiency hiding under a vicious front. It is described in incredible detail and is gripping in spite of its verbose passages (I read it in 2 days very easily).
Like a lot of biblical/magical realist style work, it marvels in its own allegorical inconsistencies and takes on a fable-like form. The writing here is quite idiosyncratic in its style and almost transcends prose to a mix of epic poetry and something else indescribably bureaucratic! I thought its portrayal of Queer Politics in religion was excellent. Within its form also lurk what appear to be subtle nods to philosophers/other authors: Deleuze, Foucault and Kant, Bruno Schulz, Brian Catling, Calvino, Marquez and a whole host of others. Its main glory comes in its originality: it renders an apocalypse that feels believable, righteous but at the same time wrong. It confuses, appals and amazes. It is truly psychedelic, I closed the book feeling glad that I had clicked on that random instagram story that day.
I am also sad, this is far better than a lot of work from far, far more succesful authors. Huw Lemmey certainly deserves his plaudits and although this piece does have a timeless element to it, I hope he is able to enjoy its success in his lifetime. He quite clearly has an exceptional command of his imagination and language and I can see him going on to have incredible success.