The Years of Rice and Salt
Kim Stanley Robinson (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
2002 Bantam Books
ISBN: 0553109200
In the 14th Century the Black Death decimates European populations, & the world is re-populated & rediscovered by Buddhists & Moslems from the Orient.
In The Years of Rice and Salt, we explore what life might have been like if Christianity had been become extinct as The Plague wiped out entire nations, & Judaism merely a respected footnote to the prevailing, surviving populations from the Far East.
Kim Stanley Robinson draws us into a whole other world, where all is faintly familiar, yet very different.
We follow the survival of one man, Bold, as he stumbles through the devastated, deserted landscape, comprehending nothing, until he arrives at a bay beside a great water. He is captured by magnificent strangers, herded with a motley crowd of captives aboard their ships, before they set sail into the sunrise for home.
On board, Bold is chained together with a twelve-year old boy whose skin is as black as Bold has ever seen on a human. What happens to that boy, & how Bold cares for him, becomes the beginning of two souls' journey through the reaches of time. One life after another -- through genders, deaths, childhoods, religions, centuries, landscapes, wars, discoveries & triumphs.
Sometimes in wealth, often in poverty. Sometimes as friends, often as enemies. Sometimes in freedom, often in servitude, these two souls seek the reason for existence in a world where two vast religions collide; being born, making it through childhood, meeting each other, gaining power, betraying, rescuing, marrying, & finally, recognizing each other.
In this world, one religion teaches reincarnation, the examined life & that there are no gods; while the other believes in monotheism, justice, & dominance. One encourages a devotional performance of living, while the other insists on rigorous instruction. One is free-floating & private, while the other is community-oriented & faction-split. Both are intensely curious about the world in which they thrive.
The Years of Rice and Salt is an awesome read, lyrically written, that opens up entire cerebral corridors I never knew existed, or only dimly glimpsed, murmuring, “I'll go along those, one of these days.” Well, the day arrived when my Beloved found The Years of Rice and Salt for me, & I set out on an epic journey.
Kim Stanley Robinson's story is one of the reasons I love to read, as he takes me, literally, into a new world where the continents are the same as I've always known them to be, yet how the people who live there have survived, is a totally different thing.
If you enjoyed the movie, Groundhog Day & always wanted something more mature, informative & deeper, about living an examined life, about getting it right, then treat yourself to a copy The Years of Rice and Salt. Be prepared for quite a few days, possibly lifetimes, of hypnotic reading.
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