A review by nostoat
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

5.0

This book is like. What if you were raised as the anti-Messiah and then you left it all behind and then and then and then and then also this book was about the events of 2020 in a very real but very slightly metaphorized way but that doesn't happen until the last fourth and also what if prisons were liminal spaces that went on forever and ever and also and also and also and- what is mother's love if not a sharpening of a knife to use against your father? What is a mother's love? What is a Father's love? What does it all mean if you are not locking arms with your comrades in the end? What does it all mean if you cannot reach both backwards and forward in time, to those who went before and those who will come after, saying to one "thank you, I see you, I carry on" and to the other "take this I tried my best I pray with all my soul to a universe I have bent with all my strength it makes a difference for you."

I have a lot of feelings about this book.

It is both unapologetically political and unapologetically fantastical, telling you myths and realities in the same breath. This is modern-era second world fantasy so both nothing and everything is like our world. It is possible to achieve a level of enlightenment in a particular popular cult that allows you to walk on air; the cops can and will descend on immigrants and those they consider lesser and unworthy for no reason and with no warning. I almost felt as though I was following Fetter like a he was a kite and I was the string, through this complicated landscape of interpersonal relationships and state violence and also by the way, magic. This is a beautiful book. I will read everything Vajra Chandrasekera writes forever.
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