drop, two sisters are born into a family of oracles. Kamikuu is admired far and wide for her otherworldly beauty; small and headstrong Namima learns to live in her sister’s shadow. On her sixth birthday, Kamikuu is chosen to become the next Oracle, serving the realm of light, while Namima is forced to serve the realm of darkness—destined to spend eternity guiding the spirits of the deceased to the underworld.As the sisters serve opposite fates, Namima embarks on a journey that takes her from the experience of first love to the aftermath of scalding betrayal. Caught in an elaborate web of treachery, she travels between the land of the living and the Realm of the Dead, seeking vengeance and closure.
At the heart of this exquisitely dark tale, Kirino masterfully reimagines the ancient Japanese creation myth of Izanami and Izanaki. A provocative, fantastical saga, The Goddess Chronicle tells a sumptuous story of sex, murder, gods and goddesses, and bittersweet revenge."
It's always difficult to review a translated work, because when you come across either brilliance or lack of lustre, it's difficult to assess whether that boon or bane is attributable to the author or the translator.
Such is the case with The Goddess Chronicle, by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Rebecca Copeland.
The story is a retelling of the original Japanese creation story. I suspect the original work by Kirino is a charged, tight story. Copeland's translation, however, lacks passion, and certainly this is a story about passion, in fact eons of passion as we trace the history of the Yin/Yang gods of Izanami and Izanaki reflected through the mortal lives of Namima and her unscrupulous lover.
There is much here to be said of sibling rivalry and betrayal of sacred trusts, of epic journeys both temporal and spiritual. There is a genesis story, a parallel to the Greek Eurydice and Orpheus myth. There is the struggle of the desperately poor serving religious tenets that serve only to embed their poverty and keep certain people in there place. Of female suffering and betrayal.
It's all there. Yet not a single phrase of elegance or startling insight to lift the reader from a grey narrative to the chiaroscuro the story demands. Lack lustre characterisation leaves me emotionally detached from the story. There is no final message, no meaning to the story, no insight into the collective female experience. While all these themes are set up, not one comes to any meaningful fruition. This causes the book to feel hollow and deeply, ironically, unemotional. A real disappointment that I am not sure who to attribute blame to.
Such is the case with The Goddess Chronicle, by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Rebecca Copeland.
The story is a retelling of the original Japanese creation story. I suspect the original work by Kirino is a charged, tight story. Copeland's translation, however, lacks passion, and certainly this is a story about passion, in fact eons of passion as we trace the history of the Yin/Yang gods of Izanami and Izanaki reflected through the mortal lives of Namima and her unscrupulous lover.
There is much here to be said of sibling rivalry and betrayal of sacred trusts, of epic journeys both temporal and spiritual. There is a genesis story, a parallel to the Greek Eurydice and Orpheus myth. There is the struggle of the desperately poor serving religious tenets that serve only to embed their poverty and keep certain people in there place. Of female suffering and betrayal.
It's all there. Yet not a single phrase of elegance or startling insight to lift the reader from a grey narrative to the chiaroscuro the story demands. Lack lustre characterisation leaves me emotionally detached from the story. There is no final message, no meaning to the story, no insight into the collective female experience. While all these themes are set up, not one comes to any meaningful fruition. This causes the book to feel hollow and deeply, ironically, unemotional. A real disappointment that I am not sure who to attribute blame to.
Age Rating 15+. Sexual detail, death and certain cultural abuses.
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