cleverpun's Reading Journal: The Starless Sea · 6:45pm Dec 16th, 2020
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Deep underground, there is a Starless Sea. Made of honey, pockmarked with Harbors, dedicated to holding stories in every shape and form imaginable. Tended by Acolytes who have their tongues cut out, protected by Guardians with swords burned into their chests.
A long time ago, there was a pirate, imprisoned in a jail cell. Every night, a servant girl would bring him his food. And one night, he asked her to tell him a story. And eventually, they fell in love.
When he was a child, on his way home from school, Zachary Ezra Rawlins found a door painted on an alley wall. It looked like a real door, realer than any door he had ever seen. Shadows had been added, and in the center stood a picture of a bee. He reached to open it, but thought better of it. And the next day, the wall had been painted over.
Now Zachary is in college, studying Emergent Media, with a focus on game design. One day, digging through the library, he finds a copy of a book with no publisher. And one of the chapters narrates the day he found that door.
The Starless Sea is one of a handful of books that I can accurately describe as 'dreamlike'. There is a clear present time in it. But the chapters alternately constantly between Zachary's story, and fables and myths and fairy tales and past events. And the distinction between them all—past, present, and fable—becomes very blurry as the book goes on.
The surreal nature of this book is hard to describe as a positive or a negative. It certainly makes some things harder to understand. But not in a bad way? The author presents things in a very understandable way, and it is only the strange leaps of logic and abstractions that occasionally cause some confusion. That's what makes it dreamlike: surrealist logic that doesn't impede the story.
Even now, months after reading, I find it difficult to describe. It's well-written, griping. But it's also got an easygoing, meandering quality to it. There is an antagonist, but they are dealt with well before the book ends. And the climax made no sense? Except it kind of did?
This is a rare moment where I have no real recommendation about something I've read. I finished it, enjoyed it. But I can't tell you whether the same will be true for you. I can't point to anything else in my long list of reading that would be a good comparison.
This book was recommended to me at a writer's workshop. In the words of the presenter, she read it in one sitting and it gave her a "book hangover." I don't think I can offer a better phrasing.
If you want to see a dream written down, then this book is the closest I've found. And if you want an adventure story about a nerd fighting a conspiracy and learning some things about himself and falling in love, then this also has that. And every part is well-written and the parts compliment/contrast each other. It was a strange, unique experience. And I guess that is a type of recommendation, in its own way.
Weird