a quick trip to hell and back

Oooooo, I loved this. Was I lost at times because a lot of the concepts are lofty and the literal landscape of the novel is Hell itself, a place we humans on the topside will speculate about for probably forever? Yes. But I had a good time stumbling around the psyche of the insanely complex Alice Law (and by extension, bumbling, genius Peter Murdoch). I think the base concept of this novel is quite grand: critique the inclusive echo chamber that is academia by creating a character who doesn't know how to deal with misogyny or life without academic validation, and send that character (who happens to study analytic magick) into the depths of the Underworld to save her only hope of riding the high of intellectual praise forever: her terrible academic advisor. Oh, and throw in her academic rival who isn't really her rival at all for the promises of a heartwrenching romance (cause cmon, we gotta have that). Truly, I think my favorite part of this novel is the very first paragraph; it doesn't waste any time jumping into the story, but rather communicates that a lot has already happened, and a trip to Hell is the only feasible way to right a horrible wrong. One of my favorite aspects of the actual storytelling structure consisted of entire chapters devoted to explaining character backstories or pivotal events in their lives that occurred before this sojourn to Hell. From Alice, to Peter, and even the infamous Professor Jacob Grimes, each of these seemingly nonlinear sections that press "pause" on the A-plot of traveling through the eight courts of the Underworld builds up the overall story and essence of each character and their motives so well. By the time I got to the end, I felt like I'd been given everything I needed to know how these people ended up risking half of their lifespans for one verbally abusive white man (though Grimes remained pretty elusive to me). The book's continual critique of what it's like to stay in a space like academia despite constant pressure, lack of sleep, gender stereotypes, threats of sexual and coercive natures, and more really pulled at my heartstrings and associations with what being in higher education afforded for women in the 1980s.
I think this book has moments where it kind of skates above the actual plot for the sake of exploring some tenet of philosophy or existentialism, which might not appeal to readers who are just looking for more of a fantasy-based quest through Hell. I recommend it nonetheless. If nothing else, the ending brought me to the very edge of tears. :)
(P.S. Getting to meet R.F. Kuang at an author event at my school and have her sign my Katabasis copy was pretty cool, too.)



Some of my favorite quotes from Katabasis:

"This was the key to flourishing in graduate school. You could do anything if you were delusional."

"I think anything is tolerable when one is asleep."

"The best libraries were like the best churches: old and musty, preindustrial."

"Nice libraries whispered: Everyone who has passed through here is very important, and so are you."

"...no siren's call was as alluring as the sea itself, and the quiet dark beyond the shore."

"That was one of the joys of specializing in linguistics: the escape from pure maths."

"Complete happiness was some form of study, said Aristotle. And they were so happy; covering entire blackboards with chalk in an inspired frenzy, then erasing the whole thing to start over again."

"And if falling in love was discovery, was letting yourself be discovered the equivalent to being loved?"

"'I only like knowing what awaits,' said Alice. 'That's all.'"

"...all books, like wine, had a readerly aroma that ripened with age, which was why bookstores and libraries smelled so good."

"'Pain is interesting, and you can bear anything as long as it's interesting.'"

"She wanted to crash brilliantly against something, and when she went she wanted to leave a mark."

"What a miracle a person was, she thought. They took up so little space. The difference between presence and absence was not even a square meter of matter. Yet now that Peter was here, the whole world shone brighter."

"Peter Murdoch was a book with no ending and all she wanted to do with the rest of her life was to trace her finger down every page."

---