Tags
1920's, fairy tale, female protagonist, historical fiction, Jazz Age, Mayan culture, Mexico, supernatural
My wonderful friend, Kathleen, gifted me with a subscription to the Book of the Month club last year, and while I’ve really enjoyed it overall, my selections have been a little hit or miss. The last few books I selected, in particular, ended up not exciting me much. However, this selection, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow, was a wonderful surprise! (And a great book to read a few months before my first trip to the Yucatán, the setting for this novel!)
Ambitious, intelligent Casiopea lives with her mother in her abusive grandfather’s home in a tiny town in 1920’s Yucatán in Mexico. One day the entire household, including her loutish cousin, Martín, leave for a day trip, and while they are gone, Casiopea unlocks the mysterious trunk in her grandfather’s room. Out from the trunk emerges Hun-Kame, the Lord of Xibalba or the Mayan god of death. Casiopea and Hun-Kame embark on a road trip through Mexico in search of the last few pieces of Hun-Kame, stolen from him by his brother, Vucub-Kame, when he usurped the throne of Xibalba. The catch? If he fails to locate all of his body in time, both Hun-Kame and Casiopea will die.
Y’all. I loved this. Moreno masterfully weaves many elements of Mayan and Mexican culture to create a lush modern fairy tale. The characters are beautifully and fully drawn. The four main characters–Casiopea, Hun-Kame, Vucub-Kame, and Martín–all root the narrative, and having each of them interact with the rotating cast of secondary characters so specifically allows for clear and believable character development over the whole narrative arc for the 2 protagonists and 2 antagonists but also for fully realized secondary characters who pop in and out of the story with impact and purpose. The moments when Casiopea is completing a task along her journey are particularly vivid, and Moreno-Garcia captures her inner life beautifully.
The story itself is so strongly rooted in Mayan mythology, Mexican geography, and classical structures. Moreno-Garcia uses Mexican geography to create a New World hero’s journey as Casiopea and Hun-Kame travel from Ukuumil and Mérida in the Yucatán to Mexico City, El Paso, and Baja just south of Tijuana. Along the way, Casiopea completes tasks, much like Odysseus and Gilgamesh, all while navigating an entirely new supernatural world she did not know previously. Moreno-Garcia is such a painter with language, particularly with those supernatural elements. All of the homes of the creatures they meet along their journey are beautifully rendered and distinct, and Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, feels like a cross between paintings by Munch and Dali in tones of grey and black. Narratively, Moreno-Garcia explores this line between the worlds as well, straddling the personal and societal tensions between the old Mayan beliefs and the rigid new Catholic beliefs incredibly well.
Interestingly, some areas where I feel like Moreno-Garcia could have had a lot of fun with her descriptive talents felt pretty flat. We are told that it is the late 1920’s and the Jazz Age has come to the big cities of Mexico, but we have to trust the omnicient messanger because it feels like that particular time frame doesn’t have much impact on the story or setting. Likewise, the big cities Casiopea and Hun-Kame visit often feel somewhat indistinguishable. The big defining factors are desert or no desert, lots of cars or not a lot of cars. A lot of the story takes place in transit, as you might expect in a hero’s journey, and much is made of the journey between each destination, so perhaps more could have been made of making each destination feel as vibrantly distinct as they actually are.
I really loved the ending. It was unexpected and completely delightful. You’ll have to read the book to figure out why.
Gods of Jade and Shadow is a fairy tale–I’m not saying anything surprising there–but it’s really a story about the inherent resilience, goodness, and kindness of humanity, things that feel increasingly far away in these chaotic times. It’s also a love story, a hero’s journey, and a trip through facets of another culture, all packeged in a jewel of a book. Pick it up, read it, and feel good in the world.