Review copy provided by the publisher. Also I helped with an\nearlier draft of this book, because the author is a dear friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So this is a theologically focused historical fantasy about\nSavonarola. Bonfire of the Vanities, “purification” of Florence,\nhanged and burned by the Pope, that Savonarola. He is the protagonist, the\nclose third person point of view is his. If you already know that you don’t\nwant to spend a lot of time with Savonarola, get out while the getting’s good,\nbecause this is that book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s hard to know how to talk about this book except in the\nvaguest terms, because the plot twist in the middle was so thoroughly surprising\nto me–and I am rarely surprised by plot twists–that I feel rather firmly that\nas many people should encounter it unspoiled as possible. Suffice it to say:\nthere is a large structural THING in the middle of the book, a shift that\nchanges all that comes before and after it. This is a book that pivots and then\nmakes a spiral. (Spiral structured books are rare. Greer Gilman has one in Cloud and Ashes<\/em>, but I’m not readily\ncoming up with a lot of others.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n …most other things I can say about this are major\nspoilers. I found it fascinating and not like anything else. I mean, it’s like\nseveral of Jo’s other books in that it has Florence in it, it has Pico della\nMirandola in it, it has Ficino in it, okay. But is it like the other books of\nJo’s that have those things, no, not really. I don’t believe in a\nlate-Medieval\/Renaissance Catholic worldview on a very fundamental level, and I\ndon’t think the book is trying to convince you to, but if you aren’t willing to\nentertain that worldview as at least a speculative premise, this will not be\nthe book for you. But if you like interrogating\/extending the natural\nconclusions of worldviews quite unlike your own, oh yes, this can do that.\nQuite a lot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Review copy provided by the publisher. Also I helped with an earlier draft of this book, because the author is a dear friend. So this is a theologically focused historical fantasy about Savonarola. Bonfire of the Vanities, “purification” of Florence, hanged and burned by the Pope, that Savonarola. He is the protagonist, the close third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-2515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bookses-precious"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2516,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions\/2516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}