Lidia Yuknavitch

I feel sorry for the books I read immediately after [a:Tamsyn Muir|6876324|Tamsyn Muir|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1543423040p2/6876324.jpg]'s Locked Tomb novels, as they have so much to live up to. I read [b:Thrust|59089701|Thrust|Lidia Yuknavitch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637602298l/59089701._SY75_.jpg|93175111] either side of [b:Nona the Ninth|58662507|Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)|Tamsyn show more Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643298298l/58662507._SY75_.jpg|92285474], which made it feel more disjointed than it otherwise would have. As the narrative darts around in time quite mysteriously, it's already pretty disjointed. Yuknavitch knits it all together via material objects and kinky sex. The settings are striking: the Statue of Liberty under construction, future drowned Manhattan, a 19th century BDSM club, a 20th century juvenile detention centre, and a magical sea. As with another novel by Yuknavitch that I enjoyed, [b:The Book of Joan|30653706|The Book of Joan|Lidia Yuknavitch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469810728l/30653706._SY75_.jpg|51198707], [b:Thrust|59089701|Thrust|Lidia Yuknavitch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637602298l/59089701._SY75_.jpg|93175111] is preoccupied with embodiment and combines elements of sci-fi and fantasy. Both are probably best described as weird fiction.

I find Yuknavitch a distinctive and interesting writer. Her novels aren't very plot focused, sometimes to the point of incoherence, but I find her writing vivid and visceral and her ideas striking and original. She's good at exploring disability, sexuality, and resistance to exploitation via strange and fantastical concepts. [b:Thrust|59089701|Thrust|Lidia Yuknavitch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637602298l/59089701._SY75_.jpg|93175111] takes about sixty pages to get going and once it does the melange of characters and settings become compelling. While some elements work better than others, certain images and scenes are truly memorable. show less

“A beautifully written field guide to being weird” says the Kirkus Reviews on the cover. Now that caught my eye. This book is from TED Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, and grew from Lidia Yuknavitch’s TED talk called The Beauty of Being a Misfit, that I had already seen. This is the fourth book that I’ve read by her, and right from the beginning Yuknavitch proved that she is a fine and most curious writer of both fiction and nonfiction. She is also a proud misfit. “The show more Misfits Manifesto” is for the rebels, eccentrics, oddballs, and anyone who has ever felt like they were messing up.“
The book isn’t about how to change and no longer fit the definition, but more of how “misfitism” is something to be embraced. She firmly believes that misfits belong in the room along with everyone else, no matter how challenging it may be. “If anyone ever made you feel like you were nothing, then this book is for you.” She goes with the concept of misfits being “out there” and different from other folks. “Misfits are remarkably good at invention, reinvention. Innovation in the face of what other people might see as failure.” She introduces a number of friends and other misfits throughout the book and lets them “explain” their misfit lives in their own words. These sections are all very powerful in how they illustrate and reinforce Yuknavitch’s statements, show how their lives are all quite different, yet all have strong similarities.
The title of the third chapter is, “The Myth that Suffering Makes You Stronger.” As is her style, she doesn’t mess around or sugar coat anything, she begins with, “What a crock of shit.” She then went on and caused me think of the grief I experienced after my wife died. “The truth is, suffering sucks and can take you to a place of wanting to kill yourself, and there’s nothing beautiful about that.” When she spoke of losing her daughter at birth, she says the following. “I haven’t ‘moved on’ at least not without her. My daughter I mean. And my suffering is not a state of grace. It’s just a part of me. Like my heart.” As I found out in my own life, grief is never gentle or kind. “In the place inside my body where my dead daughter carved out a hole, a new and all-consuming hunger was born.” As her life went on, she found herself with a “Hunger for ideas, hunger for sex, hunger for danger, hunger for risk.” She was broken and she found that: “There wasn’t a drug I wouldn’t try.” Later she brought the misfit and the rest of the population together in a beautiful way. “Instead of dying, we get to be free. I love that idea so much. In some ways I thinks that all artists are misfits, and what I see when I think about that is that we are the edges of a shape that contains everyone else.”
“We keep culture breathing.”
The book has a postscript that titled: Love Letter to Fellow Misfits
Which starts with: “I’m just like you.”
And ends with: “Wherever you are, you are not alone, even in your aloneness. I can hear you. And I am smiling.”
The book is a fascinating look at some different sorts of people, told from the viewpoint of one of their very own. It’s not like anything else I’ve ever read. show less

The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch is a highly recommended literary post-apocalyptic reimagined Joan of Arc story.

It is 2049. The Earth is a burned-out, lifeless husk due to world wars, global geological catastrophes, and solar flares. Wealthy humans, or what they have evolved into, are living on CIEL, a suborbital complex hovering above the Earth. Human are currently all sexless, hairless, and completely white. Christine Pizan, 49, remembers life on earth before CIEL, but now she show more resembles the other inhabitants. The residents of CIEL are not allowed to live past age 50, to save resources. They also practice body modification and cover themselves in scars and skin grafts. Christine specializes in skin stories, an electrosurgical branding of words on skin grafts. On her body, Christine is telling the story of Joan of Dark, a child and echo-terrorist who had a mysterious power and communicated directly with the Earth. When Christine dies, Joan's story, as branded/written on her skin, will continue

Joan fought against Jean de Men for the Earth. He is a charismatic and bloodthirsty cult leader who waged war against Joan and currently rules CIEL as a quasi-corporate police state. De Men turned Joan into a martyr, putting her execution on display - but her story is not over. Christine is planning a rebellion with others to seize control from de Men and she also learns that Joan is still alive on Earth. She is also hoping she can save her beloved friend, Trinculo.

This speculative fiction novel is told in three books, the first narrative is through Christine's point-of-view, the second is Joan's story, and the third concludes the story. The writing is incredible - literary, poetic. Yuknavitch is a wordsmith who delights in language and the passion and horror words can communicate. The Book of Joan is firmly a feminist point-of-view and confronts the questions of sexuality, love, and the fluidity of genders, along with the need to rebel against tyrannical leaders with no compassion or humanity. It begs the question: What does it mean to be human? To love?

I delighted in some of the wording Yuknavitch used in The Book of Joan. While the poetic, literary, and lyrical wording was extraordinary, and is its own literary achievement, the actual plot needed a little bit of clarification, additional explanation, more story. No one will question the quality of the writing; it is the context that became perplexing at times. In some ways this novel is almost too ambitious for the goals set before it. In the end I took great delight in the writing but felt dissatisfied by the actual flow of the narrative. While the characters are developed and there is change and growth, the notion of character development doesn't seem to directly apply to The Book of Joan - except for Joan.

The Book of Joan is highly recommended, but for a specific audience. If you like literary novels with a science fiction setting and take delight in words and their usage, it's a good choice. If you like a good epic, post-apocalyptic science fiction story, you might feel let down by the lack of a fluid, well-appointed plot.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
on 4/13/17: http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1969705592 show less

Lidia Yuknavitch is a brilliant, challenging writer. Her writing is dense, violent, brash, and often extremely confusing. There are parts of this book that I had to read multiple times, and I'm still not sure that I've understood a tenth of the content and context. She writes beautifully at times, and the text is chock-full of ideas, themes, allusions, and allegory. I find myself in awe. I often feel dumb, or maybe just numb. But somehow, I love it. Bravo.