Spinning Silver is Naomi Novik's second retelling of a fairy
tale. You do not need to read Uprooted before reading Spinning Silver (although
I definitely recommend reading Uprooted).
It's hard to put in to words all the things I love about
Spinning Silver. This is a slow moving tale with lots of characters. Novik
expects you to pay attention; there are many first person narrators and you
have to figure out who is speaking - she does not put their names at the start
of each transition. The story begins and it builds. It builds and it builds and
it builds, and characters are woven into the stories of the other characters
and then into the main thread like an elaborate braid.
On page 1 we are told
what the story of Rumpelstiltskin is about: "getting out of paying your
debts." I thought about this all through the 465 pages that followed.
Although the story is predictable in many ways - it is a fairy tale, after all
- I had no idea how things were going to happen or resolve.
Three young women of about the same age but different
circumstances anchor the stories. Although each has strengths she does not know
yet, the women are not strong at the expensive of male characters being weak.
Although I like strong female characters, I get tired of the "girl power"
narratives that are dismissive of boys and men that are also good and strong.
Spinning Silver is not one of those girl power narratives, although there is a
LOT of female power.
Fairy tale characters are often caricatures, but Novik goes
to the trouble to give depth to her characters. They grow and change. For
example, Wanda is a poor girl with an abusive father and two brothers. Their
mother is dead, after giving birth to a number of babies who died. She and the
babies are buried beneath the white tree. Wanda does not love her brothers:
"Love was buried with my mother. Sergey and Stepon were only more of the
babies who made my mother sick." (p. 28) "They had taken her from me,
all of them: Sergey and Stepon and the rest of those dead boys in the dirt.
They had taken my mother. I had never wanted to share her with them. What right
did they have to her?" (p. 31) But
things begin to change when Wanda saves Sergey's life because Stepon loves
Sergey, and eventually Wanda does love and respect her brothers.
Although there are marriages in this book, there are way
more kinds of love than romantic love. Love of a parent for a child, of a
brother for a sister, of a neighbor for a neighbor, of a mistress for a
servant, of a parent for someone else's child. Spinning Silver is filled with
toil and trials, but also friendship and honor.
There are bad characters in the book, but there are also
complex characters. Even the cruel fae king of winter is just trying to save
his people. Even the demon-possessed tsar has reasons for being angry and
indifferent.
There is a lot about being Jewish in this book, without
being anti anything else. Jews are loathed, but people need the moneylender and
the banker and the jeweler all the same. And even this old story is told with a
hope for change.
Often in fantasy I either don't understand how the magic
works or don't find it believable. Novik builds and layers the magic of her
world in a way that I totally bought in to. If there were inconsistencies, I
didn't notice them.
Wow, I've really said a lot about this book. If you like thoughtful,
slow building, engrossing world building and interesting characters, you may
enjoy Spinning Silver, and Uprooted as well. The Galesburg Public Library owns Spinning Silver in print and as an ebook.
