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A review by pancakefox
Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angélica Gorodischer
4.0
I really enjoyed this. A meandering journey through the lives of dozens of people in a fictional world, at times edging towards morality tales or parables, but then it surprises me by just being a story, where things happen. The style is very much that of an oral history. The whole experience to me feels like sitting around a campfire with an elder who's telling you stories. The seemingly completely non-linear structure of the book takes us to many such storytellers in different times and places in this fictional empire, with no clear link between them. We experience kind and forgiving storytellers, crotchety and racist storytellers, and a lot of commentary on the role of storytellers in society - providing a memory of times past, that we might choose how to act in the present. Bringing people together in shared experience of their history. Helping people understand, through example, how the world works, or how it has worked. Le Guin's influence as translator comes through, I think, in some turns of phrase - or maybe there are just stylistic similarities in Gorodischer's original work. Certainly the thematic similarities between this work and Le Guin's own must be one of the reasons for her choosing it.
My only discontent with this book is that, once or twice, it felt like wading through a very long story for not much reward - just one or two of the stories. This almost feels like a necessary element of the 'oral' storytelling style, though, and a nod at the idea that not all stories are interesting and punchy all the time. But most of stories I very much enjoyed, and they gave me a lot to think about. This also stoked my appreciation of oral storytelling, and storytelling generally, and made me want to seek out more of this in my own life.
My only discontent with this book is that, once or twice, it felt like wading through a very long story for not much reward - just one or two of the stories. This almost feels like a necessary element of the 'oral' storytelling style, though, and a nod at the idea that not all stories are interesting and punchy all the time. But most of stories I very much enjoyed, and they gave me a lot to think about. This also stoked my appreciation of oral storytelling, and storytelling generally, and made me want to seek out more of this in my own life.