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primeidealI discovered Ilmari Jääskeläinen in 2014 when Tor published his time travel novella, "Where the Trains Turn," at the same time I was playing a time travel themed werewolf game and it really stuck in my head. It's not a pleasant read, but it's an impactful one. So I saw this on the shelf and it had a pretty balling cold open:
Okay, you have my attention. But from there, the book virus takes a back seat, and the plot shifts to a premise that's not particularly speculative. A generation ago, the famous children's book writer, Laura White, put Rabbit Back on the map with her popular "Creatureville" series. She then found nine young children from the town, formed them into the titular society, and mentored them so they would become accomplished writers themselves. The society hasn't accepted any new members in decades, until Ella Milana, our protagonist, is accepted on the strength of a short story publication. But just as she's about to meet White, the latter disappears in mysterious (fantastical?) circumstances. Since Ella's substitute teaching job isn't panning out, she begins to research the previous members of the society, which is difficult because it sometimes seems that they're not really on good terms with each other. This process involves a lot of stressful, difficult "interviews," and a dark secret from the Society's past comes to light. (Ella uses some Hamilton-level comma sexting skills to delve into this.) Mysterious, but, with the possible exception of White's disappearance, not inherently speculative.
Spoilery: for suspension of disbelief purposes, I can buy that "the society used to have a tenth member who the other kids resented because of his incredible talent, but after he died suddenly, the other kids made a pact never to speak of him again." I could, separately, buy that "the society members have a highly ritualized procedure for challenging each other to 'The Game,' in which they reveal their deepest, darkest, secrets, sometimes with the help of drugs, to get raw material for each other's stories without the embellishments humans normally put in their narratives." I can't believe that both of these would simultaneously happen in the same story. Like, how was that ever supposed to work? (I also can't believe that they would have all forgotten 1. the talented kid's name, and 2. anything specific they read in the notebook they stole from him, other than "it gave us really good ideas which our subconscious helps us turn into great literature.")
There's a subplot involving Ella's father, who died of early-onset dementia, that doesn't really go anywhere, unless we're supposed to infer that a head injury sustained two decades before contributed to his later brain trauma and ties things together that way. There's also a lot of contrast between some of the women in the Society, who got pregnant when they didn't want to be, and Ella, who planned and expected to have kids of her own but then learned that she couldn't get pregnant. (I quoted the first paragraph above. The second paragraph is about Ella's ovaries. It's a little creepy, particularly because it doesn't feel like it ties together.) There's a lot of Most Writers Are Writers, with the Society members' insecurities about "are my ideas really original or did I steal them from this dead kid," "how did Laura White's influence in my life change me," food, sex, and all the other things neurotic writers angst about.
In the end, there's a final twist to the "long-lost tenth member" story that isn't too fantastical, but recontextualizes a lot of what's come before in an ironic way. There's also a "twist"? to the Laura White saga, which obliquely hints at some of the speculative elements hiding beneath the surface (thanks to the Goodreads reviewer who pointed out Ilmari Jääskeläinen's blog, which spells it out more). Spoilers: there's also a creepy phantom hiding in one of the member's gardens; the phantom is defeated by a large horde dogs who Ella and her friend/partner are first afraid are going to eat them. Crisis averted, but also, the obviously-speculative parts only take up a few pages between them.
There's a recurring motif of "time as a chronological axis" that's compelling and well-written: "Then she came up with an idea for a camera that didn't just record people in a momentary flash, but captured their entire chronological existence. Could you turn a little so that your childhood is in the picture? Right now your middle age is obscuring it..." And this passage gets at the interrelated themes of writing, research, time, and memory in a poignant, impressive way:
The reader was at first surprised, then shocked, as the criminal Raskolnikov was abruptly slain in the middle of the street, right before her eyes. Sonya, the hooker with a heart of gold, shot him through the heart. It happened midway through an essay on the Dostoevsky classic.
There's a curse or a virus or something strange stealth-editing some of the books in the town of Rabbit Back, and if you're not careful, it can spread and infect others!Okay, you have my attention. But from there, the book virus takes a back seat, and the plot shifts to a premise that's not particularly speculative. A generation ago, the famous children's book writer, Laura White, put Rabbit Back on the map with her popular "Creatureville" series. She then found nine young children from the town, formed them into the titular society, and mentored them so they would become accomplished writers themselves. The society hasn't accepted any new members in decades, until Ella Milana, our protagonist, is accepted on the strength of a short story publication. But just as she's about to meet White, the latter disappears in mysterious (fantastical?) circumstances. Since Ella's substitute teaching job isn't panning out, she begins to research the previous members of the society, which is difficult because it sometimes seems that they're not really on good terms with each other. This process involves a lot of stressful, difficult "interviews," and a dark secret from the Society's past comes to light. (Ella uses some Hamilton-level comma sexting skills to delve into this.) Mysterious, but, with the possible exception of White's disappearance, not inherently speculative.
Spoilery: for suspension of disbelief purposes, I can buy that "the society used to have a tenth member who the other kids resented because of his incredible talent, but after he died suddenly, the other kids made a pact never to speak of him again." I could, separately, buy that "the society members have a highly ritualized procedure for challenging each other to 'The Game,' in which they reveal their deepest, darkest, secrets, sometimes with the help of drugs, to get raw material for each other's stories without the embellishments humans normally put in their narratives." I can't believe that both of these would simultaneously happen in the same story. Like, how was that ever supposed to work? (I also can't believe that they would have all forgotten 1. the talented kid's name, and 2. anything specific they read in the notebook they stole from him, other than "it gave us really good ideas which our subconscious helps us turn into great literature.")
There's a subplot involving Ella's father, who died of early-onset dementia, that doesn't really go anywhere, unless we're supposed to infer that a head injury sustained two decades before contributed to his later brain trauma and ties things together that way. There's also a lot of contrast between some of the women in the Society, who got pregnant when they didn't want to be, and Ella, who planned and expected to have kids of her own but then learned that she couldn't get pregnant. (I quoted the first paragraph above. The second paragraph is about Ella's ovaries. It's a little creepy, particularly because it doesn't feel like it ties together.) There's a lot of Most Writers Are Writers, with the Society members' insecurities about "are my ideas really original or did I steal them from this dead kid," "how did Laura White's influence in my life change me," food, sex, and all the other things neurotic writers angst about.
In the end, there's a final twist to the "long-lost tenth member" story that isn't too fantastical, but recontextualizes a lot of what's come before in an ironic way. There's also a "twist"? to the Laura White saga, which obliquely hints at some of the speculative elements hiding beneath the surface (thanks to the Goodreads reviewer who pointed out Ilmari Jääskeläinen's blog, which spells it out more). Spoilers: there's also a creepy phantom hiding in one of the member's gardens; the phantom is defeated by a large horde dogs who Ella and her friend/partner are first afraid are going to eat them. Crisis averted, but also, the obviously-speculative parts only take up a few pages between them.
There's a recurring motif of "time as a chronological axis" that's compelling and well-written: "Then she came up with an idea for a camera that didn't just record people in a momentary flash, but captured their entire chronological existence. Could you turn a little so that your childhood is in the picture? Right now your middle age is obscuring it..." And this passage gets at the interrelated themes of writing, research, time, and memory in a poignant, impressive way:
As a child, Ella Milana had thought as a matter of course that there existed somewhere a vast archive where all possible information about the life of the Finnish citizenry was collected.
She had heard of a place called the National Archive, and looked it up. The encyclopaedia said: The Finnish National Archive is a central agency of the Ministry of Education that leads and oversees the activities, governance, and development of the general archives and acts as the nation's public archive and its associated centre of research.
Ella had assumed that such a place must have gathered and recorded everything, especially all the people's most valued moments. It seemed only reasonable.
The first time she could remember thinking about it was when she was six years old.
She's at the lake, chasing a beach ball that someone has kicked to her. Her feet sink into the hot sand with each step, but she feels light, almost flies. She breathes in the smell of the lake and feels very clearly and strongly that somewhere, someone is recording all of this on her behalf, so that nothing she sees around her can ever really disappear--not her mother and father, who are laughing, nor the ice cream stand, nor her buoyant joy.
Ella had never believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or God; what gave her strength was this belief in this act of recording for all eternity.
She had heard of a place called the National Archive, and looked it up. The encyclopaedia said: The Finnish National Archive is a central agency of the Ministry of Education that leads and oversees the activities, governance, and development of the general archives and acts as the nation's public archive and its associated centre of research.
Ella had assumed that such a place must have gathered and recorded everything, especially all the people's most valued moments. It seemed only reasonable.
The first time she could remember thinking about it was when she was six years old.
She's at the lake, chasing a beach ball that someone has kicked to her. Her feet sink into the hot sand with each step, but she feels light, almost flies. She breathes in the smell of the lake and feels very clearly and strongly that somewhere, someone is recording all of this on her behalf, so that nothing she sees around her can ever really disappear--not her mother and father, who are laughing, nor the ice cream stand, nor her buoyant joy.
Ella had never believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or God; what gave her strength was this belief in this act of recording for all eternity.
But overall, the fantastical elements get lost in the writers' neuroses. I wanted more of the cursed library books.
Bingo: well, we'll see. The original Finnish version was published in 2006, so I'm tentatively planning to count it for "Published in 2000s," but the English version didn't come out until 2013, so I'm polling Reddit on whether that's against bingo etiquette. ;) I think this could also count towards "magical realism/literary fantasy," according to the r/fantasy rec list, but I don't think I need that. If I wind up not using it, this will just be a non-bingo review. ;)
Bingo: well, we'll see. The original Finnish version was published in 2006, so I'm tentatively planning to count it for "Published in 2000s," but the English version didn't come out until 2013, so I'm polling Reddit on whether that's against bingo etiquette. ;) I think this could also count towards "magical realism/literary fantasy," according to the r/fantasy rec list, but I don't think I need that. If I wind up not using it, this will just be a non-bingo review. ;)
