Divine Endurance

When I bought the oriiginal Arbor House edition of this wonderful book, it started a lifelong relationship between Gwyneth's work and me as her devoted reader. Drawn to the cover (I'm a devout cat person) and intrigued about the locale (I've been drawn to that part of the world ever since it was used by Poul Anderson to create his off-world setting for Earthman Go Home) the deal was sealed by her great prose style and the sense of wonder she creates. In no way predictable, but in every way plausible, this is a book to treasure and re-read (as I have done, with a reading copy.) Somehow I've bought but have not yet to any Ann Halam books, but anything by "Gwyneth" goes right on top of the on-deck list as I've loved her rock and roll quintet, The Spirit of Bois Dumont, and her great books of criticism.

By the time that Chosen Among the Beautiful (Cho) makes her way from the broken palace to the great lake, we are clear about a few things. Neither she or her cat, Divine Endurance, are what they seem and this is not your typical science fiction/fantasy novel. This is my second book by Gwyneth Jones. I decided to pick up Divine Endurance after being extremely impressed with Bold As Love. Sadly little known in the US, Jones is an award-winning British science fiction and fantasy author. She is justly famed for her inventiveness and the quality of her prose. Divine Endurance was her first novel. This post-apocalyptic Indonesia is an amazing and real place-- full of myths and shattered shards of society. Cho, her brother Worthy to Be Beloved, and the mysterious Divine Endurance are relics from the disasterous past-- angel dolls which act as a catalyst for change in the struggling world. If Divine Endurance has a flaw as a novel, it is largely that the world and the characters are better developed than the plot. It reminded me in many ways of The Etched City, by K.J. Bishop, although I think that the Jones book is ultimately more successful. If you are looking for something unusual and are a fan of dystopic or post-apocalypse science fiction (China Mieville, Sean McMullen) then I suggest that you give Divine Endurance a try. Certainly if you are a fan of any kind of intelligent science fiction or fantasy, then you should become familiar with Gwyneth Jones.

I read this book over 10 years ago and the memory of its beauty still haunts me. The prose was so elegant and so precise that I could taste, smell and feel the sensations being described on paper. The world of a post-nuclear holocaust oppressed by a rigid social and political structure should have been ugly and unpleasant, but quite the opposite--it was enchanting and thrilling.Three scenes from the book I remember particularly: the richly clad prince wandering among blossoms of ylang-ylang (altho' it's been so long since I read this it may have been jasmine); an erotic encounter between the bandit Derweet (a beautiful woman disguised as a handsome man) and his/her computer-generated servant, the lovely child, Cho ( I felt as tho' I, too, were being ravished); the slipping, sliding journey that Cho takes in search of her brother down the mountains of southeast China that have been melted into glass by nuclear blasts. Nor can I forget the creature that lends her name to the book as its title, "Divine Endurance," the small, brown, wise, tough-talking little cat that accompanies Cho in her travels.Gwyneth Jones has a subtle imagination and a deep understanding of human nature. You experience this beautiful book rather than merely reading it.