[book_talk] book review - Orson Scott Card
- From: "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Blind Chit Chat" <Blind-Chit-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Books for the Blind" <Books4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Book Lovers Cafe" <bblc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Book Talk" <book_talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Science Fiction list" <blind-sf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 10:18:40 -0800
_Enchantment_
by Orson Scott Card
narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle DiCouer
(I hope I spelled the female narrator's name correctly--I can't find it
written down.)
When Father declared that the family now consisted of religious Jews
and that Ivan would now go by his Jewish name of Itzak Shlomo rather
than by his accustomed everyday name of Ivan Schmetzki, Ivan was upset.
Father wished to move his family out of Kiev and hopefully to America,
but only by embracing Judaism were they likely to receive that
so-desired exit visa from the Soviet government. It cost Ivan his
friendships in the neighborhood and at school, his place in school, and
eventually his beloved home. Only in running did he find any true
release, so he ran as much as he could. When they were forced out of
Kiev, they stayed at Cousin Marak's farm, where Ivan, Father, and
Mother all helped Marak and his wife Sophia with all of the tasks
needed to keep the farm going. Still, Ivan had free time, and that he
spent running, often running deep into the primeval woods nearby, where
one day Ivan found something wonderful and terrible--a perfectly round
chasm, and in the center of it, on a pedestal that stood as high as the
floor of the woods, a bed on which lay a sleeping lady of untoward
beauty. And, in the chasm, it appeared some kind of great monster
lurked under the great quantity of leaves that hid the chasm's depth.
Terrified, Ivan ran back to the farm, only to find that while he was
out running the exit visa had arrived, and tomorrow they would fly to
Vienna.
Years later, Ivan Schmetzki has made a name for himself both as an
athlete who had competed in decathlons across the United States and as
a scholar of ancient languages used in the Ukraine. Ukraine is now a
country in its own right, the Soviet Union having fallen; and Ivan is
free now to reenter the land of his birth as a scholar, looking for the
sources of Ukrainian literature. Having finished his research for his
proposed doctorate, he thinks to visit Cousin Marak's farm once more,
and from it he enters those woods again, trying to learn whether there
really was a sleeping beauty on a pedestal in the midst of a great
circular chasm or if that was all the fabrication of a small boy
capable of running fast and dreaming wildly.
What he finds draws him into a great conflict as magic struggles with
religion for the hearts of the people of Taina, and as Bear, Micola
Mijeski, and the evil witch Baba Yaga compete for supremacy against the
Church.
I love time-travel stories as well as expansions on traditional folk
and fairy tales, and this one is a doozy. Card has managed to expand
upon the legend of Sleeping Beauty, undoubtedly inspired by
Tchaikowski's famous orchestration of the tale, in a truly unique
manner; and he has found a true balance point for traditional
religions, Christianity, and Judaism. One feels Ivan's terrible
embarrassment as he finds he must follow Katarina naked into Taina, and
her confusion when she finds herself fleeing her world with her new
husband, who is apparently unfit to rule as Taina's King, into his time
in which magic has been supplanted by technological wonders.
The two narrators alternate their readings, and both do excellent jobs.
For those whose hearts never outgrow fairy tales, enjoy!
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
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