June 9, 2009

Book 25: The San Veneficio Canon

The San Veneficio Canon
Michael Cisco

I'm reading this somewhat obscure volume as the selection of a monthly book club I'm looking into, and I am incredibly interested to meet the person who suggested it and to hear others' opinion of this book, as it strikes me as purposefully difficult and inaccessible to all but the author and his deliberately obscure intentions. The volume, split into two linked novellas, begins with a lot of promise as its first sentence sets the scene for a gothic, dark fantasy with beautiful cloud imagery, and it is certain that Michael Cisco has considerable writing talent. Passages from the book jump out for their descriptive clarity and depth; others ring true with metaphorical meaning that sheds some light on the elusive text. Good writing, however, cannot salvage this pompous mess of a book that thinks far too highly of itself and is so incoherent as to seem deliberately so. From the beginning of "The Divinity Student", readers are lost in a plot that makes absolutely no sense. Instead of laying some clues that will later be knitted together, Cisco simply stacks incomprehensible plot elements onto each other ad infinitum and expects his readers to follow along as he catapults his characters into increasingly nonsensical situations. The book has a definite gothic sensibility to it and is unapologetically dark throughout, but its interesting ideas regarding the function of words in the construction of reality and his interesting application of grave-digging to include sojourns into the minds of the recently deceased are lost as the reader tries unsuccessfully to drag any meaning at all from the vast majority of the text.

The San Veneficio Canon is a double failure because of its inability to make sense for longer than a paragraph or description while it supposedly meditates on the power of language. Its focus on words and narrative construction surely means that the author is aware of what fiction is capable of, but he seems blissfully unaware and set only on self-aggrandizement as he sneers upon his poor readers with his literary pomposity. The end of "The Golem" suggests a narrative preoccupation with language, supported by the main character's quest to resurrect a catalog of forgotten words, but there isn't sufficient consideration given to this theme throughout the book to make these futile death throes connect with readers. Likewise, the occasional self-reference by characters to being creations of words comes off as a not-so-subtle bit of unappealing literary smugness. Biblical imagery abounds throughout both novellas- the main character is the titular enigmatic Divinity Student- but there is no apparent rhyme or reason, let alone a consistent metaphor, which would be far too much to ask of a book that lacks any semblance of a coherent plot thread. This book is highly discouraging at best and at worst gives the reader a sense of vertigo as numerous interesting conceits are mashed incoherently together with ironically excellent prose. The San Veneficio Canon is meaningless muddled muck that strives for grandiosity but which proves that even a postmodern sensibility requires such narrative basics as well-evoked setting, characters with motivations (or at least who seem to have motivations), and a general acknowledgment that the reader is uninitiated and needs something, anything, to grab when entering a new narrative universe. Michael Cisco is a good writer and can spin good prose, but he is incurably pompous and his disdain for his readers and for common sense makes The San Veneficio Canon an unmitigated disaster and a painful experience.

Grade: D+

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