I
fell in love with this book. The writing is captivatingly poetic. The
descriptions are beautiful in a surreal manor. Every object has its own
personality and they are not quite what they seems to be, they are so much
more. I love how the train cars are alive and have a will of their own. The
city is alive and aims to please the people within it. The characters are relatable
and true. They are lost souls striving for happiness, to experience something
other than the norm. I find the relationship with Palimpsest is equivalent to a
drug at first. It brings you to a higher state of being, you experience things that are
wonderful or frightening but the trip is worth it. Some become obsessed and
addicted. The real world blurs with the wonders of the other one until the other side takes
over. Reality and immigration are the recurring themes in the book. What is
real? Is Palimpsest the real world or is earth reality? Can it be both? But
unlike a drug it really is another world, a real one you can immigrate to.
Palimpsest is not a dream or a pure utopia like some believe at first. It is
another world filled with war and greed and love. Everything is just amplified,
more intense that earth. How it feels to be a traveler in a new strange world,
you only think it is strange because of your own customs. Cassimere believes in
immigration and fought the war to allow immigrants in. Our own world fights for
the same reason. Many people don’t want outsiders coming into their “prefect
world.”
The
entrance to this mysterious world is through another. For most sex becomes
meaningless, something as easy and emotionless as hopping on a bus. One man has
sex with his own sister to enter the world. (Then again one man enters the world
so he can be with his hallucination of his dead sister.) But I think this ties
into drug use also. After experiencing such a higher satisfying state sex can
seems weak and unfulfilling in comparison. In the end they join together on
earth so they can stay in Palimpsest forever, a city that is alive and loves
them.