City of Saints and Madmen: The Book of Ambergris | |||||
Jeff VanderMeer | |||||
Wildside Press/Cosmos Books, 219 pages | |||||
A review by William Thompson
With the Book of Ambergris, the author has brought to life an opulent yet decaying city-state so vibrantly
that one can hear the sluice of rain on the cobblestones, savor the odors wafting from the vendor stalls hawking
their wares and delicacies, and in moments of inattention peer into the darker shadows that lurk beneath the
city's façade. This is a world where the everyday slips seamlessly and without warning into madness,
the surreal met as easily as turning the corner on a street. Not since Gormenghast has one encountered
corridors and alleyways where the bizarre mixes freely with the commonplace, with a darker presence waiting
just below the surface (there is Miéville's New Crobuzon, but the intentions and tone there appear quite
different). And yet much that takes place here, even in moments of peril, is interlaced with a wry and
scoffing humor, as readily directed at the author himself as the plights of his protagonists.
Written with a richness of language and imagery uncommon for fantasy, and the equivalent of the best offered
by contemporary literary stylists, the author blends at once a serious eye towards traditions both literary and
social with an equal measure of playfulness. Descriptive passages possess an originality and individual
vitality for which it is hard to find parallel. Idiosyncratic in approach, as well as eclectic in
reference, the author acknowledges in his style of writing various literary influences, from Conrad (recognized
in Michael Moorcock's delightful nod at the introduction) to Melville or Borges. The opening
to "Dradin, In Love," in the character's fascination with a figure seen through a window, the
obsessive detail devoted to a building's façade, is reminiscent of "Bartleby the Scrivener," and
the names of many of the characters -- Cadimon Signal, Hoegbotton & Sons, Samuel Tonsure, Krotch, or
the Autarch of Nunk -- Dickensian in whimsicality and identity. While portraying his characters
with compassion, VanderMeer often satirizes not only their actions and concerns, but the wonderful society
he has created as well as, by extension, the echo of our own.
Containing two novellas, along with a history of Ambergris, a glossary, and a short story, these tales
are resonant in content as well as description lavishly yet never superfluously devoted to bringing to
life a remarkable fictional world that will linger in memory long after the book is put down, begging
for a return to the page that will promise new and unforeseen rewards. Like the writer in
the "Strange Case of X," the reader can become so immersed in Ambergris' marvels that during
the moment of apprehension one is transported, and the lines between reality and fiction
blurred. In these moments, like the author himself, one begins to ponder where one truly prefers
to exist: as a visitor to the strange wonders created on the turning page, or cognizant of the real
world around one and the self-aware act of reading. Is the real world within the imagination, or
confined to our sentient recognition and consciousness of the act of imagining, the interior realm of
the mind separate and determined by our exterior apprehension of ourselves, our actions and our physical
surroundings? As the author in this short story admits to a blurring experienced between the
imagined and the real in his immersion within his creation, so too is the same experience and question
posed to the reader, the success of his ability to captivate the imagination resulting in a resounding
if at times unsettling yes.
The two novellas, "Dradin, In Love" and "The Transformation of Martin Lake," both broadly
concern themselves with characters that experience epiphanous moments in their lives. In "Dradin,"
a failed missionary becomes obsessed with a woman he has only seen through a window, in his imagination enacting
their courtship, giving her gifts that he has delivered without ever seeing her. His first gift is a book
concerning incorporeal passion, for which he purchases a copy for himself in order that they might possibly
touch the same pages as, in his imagination, they read together. The second novella, winner of
the World Fantasy Award, concerns an artist who is presented with a choice between murdering another and
saving his own life. His decision has unalterable and unforeseen consequences, both for his art and
his career. Woven throughout this tale is a survey of the artist's work written ostensibly by an art
historian, in which the author turns a satiric eye towards the assumptions existing in any attempt to
interpret an artist through his work.
But perhaps the most delightful part of this collection is found in the "History,"
the "Hoegbotton Guide to Ambergris" and its accompanying glossary, in which the author provides an
often hilarious commentary upon figures and events found elsewhere within the stories, poking fun at academics
and the chronicles of the city itself, couched within the framework of a serious historical treatise, complete
with copious footnotes. Here we learn about the founding of the city by Cappan John Manzikert,
a "giant" in the annals of Amberbris; The Silence whose horror can still be seen in boarded up
and bricked in buildings scattered throughout the city; the nocturnal and subterranean civilization that
dwells deep beneath the streets. Additionally, famous and noteworthy locations, such as the Spore
of the Gray Cap or the Arch of Tarbut, are included, as well as a wealth of information regarding
Ambergrisian society and culture, including the long-lost recipe for Oliphaunt's Delight. For any
that have a love of flipping through guides or historical references, this chapter should prove a true
pleasure, if for no other reason than that it intentionally skews events and records in a way history
never intended.
Behind all this, almost a character unto itself, is the metropolis of "lawless Ambergris, that
oldest of cities." Ambergris provides a wondrous backdrop to the stories unfolding, fresh sights
and marvels appearing upon each page: the Festival of the Freshwater Squid, with its pageantry and costumes
and innocent revelry that ritually transforms into mayhem. The Religious Quarter, known as Pejora's
Folly, with its myriad faiths, cults and canon of saints, including Solon the Decrepit and Philip the
Philanderer. In a setting at once medieval and lifted from Conrad's novels, one can still see the
occasional Manzikert car backfiring its way around donkeys and carts. Exotic wares and peoples
travel the River Moth to disembark at the city docks, and mysterious tribes live in the surrounding
jungles of The Great Beyond, their existence and customs only rumor. One can ride in a cab with a
sheep, though not expect much in the way of conversation. And of course, an important destination
for any tourist is the Borges Bookstore on Albumuth Boulevard, where the customer can peruse funereals
entitled "Objects of Desire," the many and various Hoegbotton & Sons guides, the imprints
of the Ministry of Whimsy, or purchase that essential work on incorporeal passion mentioned
above, "Refractions of Light in a Prison." Yet over towering all is the city of Ambergris,
in its multitudes and the ghosts of its memories almost sentient itself, where wealth dwells amidst
squalor (and the occasional fungus), reducing its residents in the shadow of its image, where "buildings
[battle] for breath and space like centuries-slow soldiers in brick-to-brick combat."
Once visited, you will want to return, and if circumstances detain you, you will not soon forget. The
author has created a world so diverse and protean in its wonders, life-like in expression, that he has
fashioned an alternate reality unlike any that has gone before, irresistible in its curiosities and
marvels. And, he has done it with the voice of a siren. It can be said no better than by
Michael Moorcock at the book's opening: "It's what you've been looking for."
William Thompson is a writer of speculative fiction, as yet unpublished, although he remains hopeful. In addition to pursuing his writing, he is in the degree program in information science at Indiana University. |
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