I read this book as part of reading all the hugo books, and gosh, am I conflicted! On one hand, it is a beautifully written fable illuminating deep themes around family, migration, the pressure of living up to the burdens our parents lay on us, politics, racism and oppression. On the other hand it is completely dreamlike, the pacing is all over the place, the plot is nebulous and drifts away if you stare at it too hard, it is hard to be invested in who the characters are or what they want.

I think it is Art, I am not sure I am very good at reading Art yet. It is weird and otherworldly, the invisible devils, the bright doors, the reshaping of the world, the deep horrors so mundanely present, the fantastical muddled with the grimy and tawdry. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2024/05/2024074-saint-of-bright-doors-vajra.html ( )

all the rules of how everything works in this world are different. and the structure of the book unfolds as a series of collapsing expectations, in moments of crisis, as if it's matching the subject matter: one door closes, blowing up the narrative, just as another door opens to reveal another whole new universe based on (but completely different from) the last. in this way the narrative echoes the whole concept in the book: that the magic of the ancient jungle is built on layers of original soil, rebuilding the world each time by sifting the history as it grows and remakes itself over immeasurable time. so the book is built to a particular but unusual pattern, to portray shadow selves in existential cities - like Delany's Dhalgren, and Mieville's The City and the City, and Roberto Bolano's 2666. each one expressed in different sub-genres, but wonderful company to keep. ( )

Oh my heckin gosh, this was a ride! Page 282 and suddenly what I thought I knew was twisted up, but that's a theme throughout-an the novel anyway - about myth-making and truth in stories (rumors, gossip) - and a bit of Granny Weatherwax's theory of narrative causality, that people are driven by the drumbeats of a story to an inevitable conclusion, even though they believe themselves to be in charge of the telling.

The writing style is musical at times, breaking out into rhythms of three or more, linked by "or", which I found to be so evocative. The setting, too, is rich urban fantasy inspired by South Asia, which sets it apart from so many others published in the US. (I hope this means we see more, from English writers or in translation, as a result of the popularity of this one.)

Two of my very favorite books are The Raven Tower (Ann Leckie) and If on a winter's night a traveler... (Calvino), so it's probably not a surprise that I love The Saint of Bright Doors and Chandrasekera's take on stories and truth. I honestly suspect I'm missing some of the symbolism and other themes, because of my deep interest in storytelling and myth-making, but they are there - not least about colonialism, race and class and the rule of law, or the power of government or even its attempts at power in the face of its own impotence.

But also, in summary, just wow, what a novel! ( )

Let's start from weird. This is dark, gritty, contains plenty of state sponsored violence and some individual violence. I think it is a discussion of the dangers of remaking the story of the past to suit the ambitions of present powers, as well as how unreliable our stories of the past are. And inaccurate, unreliable stories are very dangerous, as are people displaced in memory or disposed of in a past present. ( )