Review: Or What You Will

Or What You Will by Jo Walton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The problem with very clever people is that they can be too clever by half. And the problem with really good writers is that they can become self-indulgent.

This book shows both those faults; it's metatextual and postmodern in a way that reminded me of John Barth (which, for me, is not a good thing). However, unlike Barth's plotless and inconclusive ramblings, it does have a reasonably complete arc (though the ending felt rushed), and I ultimately enjoyed it as well as respecting the level of craft on display.

The other main fault it has is taking left-over research from the author's previous book (Lent, set in Renaissance Florence) and presenting it as out-and-out infodumps direct to the reader from the narrator. The fact that they are interesting infodumps just saves them; for me, the same couldn't always be said for the extended descriptions of incidental parts of the setting.

The central conceit is that an author's muse/daemon/imaginary friend is trying to get her into her fictional world, because (we learn partway through) she's dying in the real world, and in the fictional world, people only die if they want to or if someone murders them.

The author character, Sylvia, is not (as I initially thought) the actual author of the book; she's about 20 years older than Jo Walton, and a Canadian of Irish descent rather than a Welshwoman. But part of the reason I thought she might be Jo Walton was the echoes of the previous Jo Walton book I'd read, Among Others, which is a fictionalization of Walton's adolescence. Both Mori in the latter book and Sylvia in this one have terrible, emotionally abusive mothers, and just as Mori refers to doing both parts of the dialog with the fairies (leading us to wonder if they're real or imaginary), the long-unnamed narrator daemon talks about Sylvia claiming that she used to do that with him.

There are several main strands to the book. One is the sequel to the fictional author's first series that the daemon instigates to provide her with a place of refuge; it's based on characters from Twelfth Night and The Tempest, and set in a largely Shakespearean version of Florence, but it also includes some historical figures and extra speculative elements. Another is the story of Sylvia's life, her abusive mother, her abusive first husband, her much-missed second husband, the decisions she made and the crises she had along the way that made her who she is. Then there are the daemon's metafictional maneuverings, which stitch the other two strands together, along with a generous helping of Fun Fiorenze Facts.

Like her Renaissance heroes, Walton has attempted something daring and difficult with great skill, and I feel she's largely pulled it off, though for me it wasn't an unqualified success. If you hate metafiction, or if infodumps (even interesting ones) put you off, this is not the book for you. But it shows emotional strength, keen observation of humanity, and a great love for both a place and a time, which largely make up for any flaws as far as I'm concerned.

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