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| Photo taken by me |
Arden, K. (2017). The
bear and the nightingale. New York City: Del Rey. 978-1-101-88593-2
Summary:
Vasya is the daughter of a Russian boyar in the 1300’s,
whose village is on the outskirts of a mysterious forest. Unlike her brothers,
sisters, and the other villagers, Vasya can see the chyerti, household and nature sprites who live in their specific
spaces (i.e. the stables, the lake, the kitchen) and can either be helpful like
the domovoi who sits on a stool next
to the oven and helps with the mending or they can be dangerous like the rusalka who lives in the lake and tempts
humans to her and drowns them.
The villagers have always given offerings to the chyerti until Father Konstantin comes to
live amongst them at the behest of Anna Ivanova, Vasya’s stepmother. Father
Konstantin converts the villagers fully to Christianity and to turn their back
on the chyerti. Because of this, the
Bear --Medved-- is able to come to his full power and threaten the way of life
the Russians know: prosperity in the crops, happiness on the hearths and in the
family, and peace in death. Only Vasya, with help from Medved’s brother Morozko
--Death, the Frost-King; her own brother Aloysha; and her new stallion Solovey,
can return Medved to his prison and make everything in the village right again.
As a Genre Example:
The world-building in The
Bear and the Nightingale comes from the immersion in 14th
century pre-Russia. Even as a fan of historical fiction, I was mostly
unfamiliar with many of the setting aspects, and I had to look up clothing
terms such as “sarafan” to accurately make the picture in my mind as I read. Arden
has taken multiple fairy tales and Russian folklore to create this new story
(Staggs, 2016), which is in-line with the Saricks text, although I’m not
familiar enough with Russian tales to identify a specific fairy tale.
The biggest deviation from the fantasy described by Saricks
is that The Bear and the Nightingale
is more the magical realism subgenre of the module notes than the overt fantasy
of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Narnia. Encyclopedia Britannica (1999) and
the module notes identify magical realism more with Latin-American authors such
as Jorge Luis Borges, Isabel Allende, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but
characterizes it “by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical
elements into seemingly realistic fiction”. Because the chyerti, the Frost-King, and so on are as much a part of the
Russians’ daily lives as cell phones and Facebook are to the 21st
century, the story can be classified as magical realism.
The main characters are humans, but Vasya and her stepmother
can see the chyerti, which marks them
as having the “Sight”. The chyerti
and the horses speak with Vasya, and Vasya directly interacts with Medved,
Morozko, and the upyr (“vampire”).
The language is very lyrical and is reminiscent of literary
fiction. Yet it is more flowery than the overwhelming prose of Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Charles Dickens. The pacing is quite slow. The exposition is
extremely long-- almost dreadfully so. However, after some digging online, I
found out that this is the first in a trilogy, hence the slow beginning.
Evaluation:
I give The Bear and
the Nightingale 3.5 out of 5 stars. I love fantasy, and it ties with
historical fiction as my favorite genre, but this book is not my typical
fantasy read-- I much prefer Sarah J. Maas and Harry Potter than magical
realism. Although, my typical distancing from magical realism is due to the
presence of everyday magic in the present, because The Bear and the Nightingale is set some 700 years ago, it helped
my suspension of disbelief.
I like Vasya as a character very much. She is spunky, feminist,
and the complete opposite of what was expected of girls and women in the
medieval world. I love strong female protagonists, and she is one in thought
and action.
I would recommend this book sparingly. It’s quite “heady”
thanks to the lyrical prose, and someone looking for a “beach read” will not
take to it. There is also a lot of Christianity vs. paganism contained within,
and since paganism “wins” over Christianity, it probably won’t be well-received
by a devout fundamentalist.
Reader's Advisory:
The Bear and the Nightingale
is currently on our ebook “display” for books about Russia since the Russian
Revolution happened 100 years ago, so I would recommend it to those who want to
read about Russia, especially since most books about Russia are during the time
of the czars, and this one takes place before that Russia. I would also
recommend it to fans of historical fiction since it does take readers to a
wholly different setting, which is sometimes sought when a reader has read one
too many WWII novels.
References
Editors of
Encyclopedia Britannica. (1999, September 17). Magic[al] realism. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/magic-realism
Staggs, M. (2016,
October 9). NYCC 2016: Katherine Arden discusses The Bear and the Nightingale.
Retrieved from http://www.unboundworlds.com/2016/10/nycc-2016-katherine-arden-discusses-bear-nightingale/
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