Fantasy Annotation - The Infinite Now by Mindy Tarquini
The Infinite Now by Mindy Tarquini
Summary
Fiora Vicente has recently been orphaned during the influenza epidemic of 1918 and kicked out of her Philadelphia apartment empty-handed. At 16 she is almost an adult, but is taken by a woman who encounters her on the street to live with Don Sebastiano who is a gracious host. Fiora has hopes of finding a job to earn enough money to attend typewriting school and work in an office. Instead, it turns out that she must take care of the increasing number of ill people in her new apartment building including the woman who found her a new home, a young pregnant woman (Benedetta), and the don himself. This is not at all what Fiora had in mind for herself, and as a strong-willed young woman she rebels against the conventional norms of her day; but other forces are clearly at play that will help her find a way to follow her dreams.
It turns out that Fiora’s late mother was well-known as a fortune teller. After Fiora goes back to her old apartment to reclaim her mother’s things, she discovers that there are magical powers in her mother’s black, velvet curtain, powers that Fiora does not understand and cannot entirely control. The curtain reveals the future to Fiora, but only five minutes ahead of the present. After using the curtain to save a few lives, Fiora discovers that an invisible bubble of sorts has formed around her neighborhood. Nobody else is getting sick or dying, but Benedetta’s baby is overdue. Nothing is growing there including plants, but is this a good thing? Time has been altered and Fiora doesn’t know how to fix it. Can the guaratrice (Italian folk healer) help her? Should she trust the guaratrice when Don Sebastiano warns against her? Will Fiora learn to use her newly discovered magic to save her neighbors and those surrounding them?
Beyond these questions, Fiora is grappling with the realization that she feels more than friendship for Benedetta. Her feelings are not immediately reciprocated and their friendship suffers as a result. With the lens of history on this LGBT theme in the story, readers know that Fiora is indeed a character struggling with her time and place. Between the fantasy themes of finding oneself and this added storyline, the novel feels a bit busy and crowded at times. This book is marketed as adult fantasy and LGBT fiction, and in fact has garnered several distinctions including: The Today Show Winter Book Selection, Finalist in the American Book Fest Best Book Awards for Fantasy and Winner for LGBTQ, 2017 Gold Winner of the Fantasy selection for Forward Indies, and a Forward Indies Finalist in the LGBT category.
Summary
Fiora Vicente has recently been orphaned during the influenza epidemic of 1918 and kicked out of her Philadelphia apartment empty-handed. At 16 she is almost an adult, but is taken by a woman who encounters her on the street to live with Don Sebastiano who is a gracious host. Fiora has hopes of finding a job to earn enough money to attend typewriting school and work in an office. Instead, it turns out that she must take care of the increasing number of ill people in her new apartment building including the woman who found her a new home, a young pregnant woman (Benedetta), and the don himself. This is not at all what Fiora had in mind for herself, and as a strong-willed young woman she rebels against the conventional norms of her day; but other forces are clearly at play that will help her find a way to follow her dreams.
It turns out that Fiora’s late mother was well-known as a fortune teller. After Fiora goes back to her old apartment to reclaim her mother’s things, she discovers that there are magical powers in her mother’s black, velvet curtain, powers that Fiora does not understand and cannot entirely control. The curtain reveals the future to Fiora, but only five minutes ahead of the present. After using the curtain to save a few lives, Fiora discovers that an invisible bubble of sorts has formed around her neighborhood. Nobody else is getting sick or dying, but Benedetta’s baby is overdue. Nothing is growing there including plants, but is this a good thing? Time has been altered and Fiora doesn’t know how to fix it. Can the guaratrice (Italian folk healer) help her? Should she trust the guaratrice when Don Sebastiano warns against her? Will Fiora learn to use her newly discovered magic to save her neighbors and those surrounding them?
Beyond these questions, Fiora is grappling with the realization that she feels more than friendship for Benedetta. Her feelings are not immediately reciprocated and their friendship suffers as a result. With the lens of history on this LGBT theme in the story, readers know that Fiora is indeed a character struggling with her time and place. Between the fantasy themes of finding oneself and this added storyline, the novel feels a bit busy and crowded at times. This book is marketed as adult fantasy and LGBT fiction, and in fact has garnered several distinctions including: The Today Show Winter Book Selection, Finalist in the American Book Fest Best Book Awards for Fantasy and Winner for LGBTQ, 2017 Gold Winner of the Fantasy selection for Forward Indies, and a Forward Indies Finalist in the LGBT category.
Fantasy Elements:
Characterization - Fiora is clearly on a journey of self-discovery throughout the story. At the outset, she is simply on a journey to overcome her parents’ deaths and make a way for herself by going to typing school and getting a job. She knows that she does not want to marry and have children like other girls her age even though this is a societal expectation. Everything changes when she discovers the powers she has through the curtain and learns how to harness it to help the people around her through a very difficult time. This dual journey of self-discovery is the primary impetus behind the increasing pace of the plot.
As with many fantasy genre novels, some characters in this novel are not what they seem. The guaratrice seems like a friendly person who knew Fiora’s mother, and her potions could help the ill people in the building, but Don Sebastiano warns against her and her tea appears to wipe people’s memories. And then there is the mystery of how these people in the building all knew Fiora’s parents, but Fiora didn’t know them until now. Why would her parents not speak of them?
Storyline - A basic good vs. evil storyline can be seen in The Infinite Now. From the beginning of the story, the lurking death of the influenza virus is a source of evil and fear that underpins the plot. Magic isn’t immediately a part of the plot, but becomes integral to the fight of good (life and wellness) against evil (illness and death). Without the element of magic, this would be a purely historical novel about an orphaned young woman during the 1918 flu epidemic who may be falling in love with her same gender friend.
Tone/Mood - Saricks notes that “a melancholy tone pervades much of the genre” (2009, p. 267). I find this to be true for The Infinite Now. Fiora spends much of her time cleaning up after sick people and saving people from a miserable death. Even when she waxes optimistic about her future, there are elements of poverty and sickness that cloud her present. As the story progresses, and more deaths enter the picture from both flu and war, the melancholy grows.
Setting/Frame - The historical setting of 1918 Philadelphia is what made me choose this story. Beyond that, there is an “otherness of time and place” and “something is out of kilter” (Saricks, 2009, p. 265). Indeed these are perfect descriptions of The Infinite Now because the important elements of time manipulation and future-telling through the magic of the curtain lend to a sense of alternate history.
Style/Language - The language is very descriptive but sometimes this is at the expense of clarifying the more fantastical elements of the plot. My opinion is that this book reads much like a YA novel in that we get a front seat to Fiora’s angst around finding herself. The coming-of-age theme and a main character’s journey of self-discovery are often part of both YA and fantasy.
Library Laura’s Top Takeaways Using Saricks’ Rule of Three
Character - A strong female character, Fiora is on a dual journey of self discovery.
Pace - Intensifying - The action increases significantly once Fiora realizes that the bubble is not going to save her friends and neighbors.
Tone - Thought provoking - The reader wonders how Fiora will manage the magic of the curtain and if will it help or hinder those around her. Readers will also be curious about how the LGBT storyline will play out in this historical setting.
Read-alikes
A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan - This historical fantasy novel delves into the witchcraft and magic of the women of the same family over several generations.
The Witch’s Daughter by Paula Brackston - This title jumps between historical and contemporary time periods and explores both family and witchcraft through strong female characters.
References
Saricks, J. G. (2009). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: ALA.
Saricks, J. (2009, October). Rule of Three. Booklist, 25.
The Infinite Now. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2019, from https://www.fantasticfiction.com/t/mindy-tarquini/infinite-now.htm
The Secret Language of Books: A Guide to Appeal. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ebscohost.com/uploads/novelist/pdf/NoveList_Appeal_2018.pdf
I recently read Alice Hoffman's The Rules of Magic (a later released prequel to Practical Magic) and until I read your review of this book did not even think to put it in the fantasy genre. But I easily see how it fits. I always like to find books like this because while I enjoy high fantasy so many people don't enjoy the time it takes to world build and having books that have a clear knowable time and place allow people to suspend their disbelief and enjoy the other elements of a fantasy novel. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteMeredith, for me the Fantasy genre was my "stretch"...not my usual pick of genre, so I did really struggle to find something that appealed to me enough read the whole book! I ended up going to NoveList to use appeal factors and recommendations to find this book. I find that I can suspend reality and read fantasy in a juvenile or teen book much more easily than an adult novel. This one fit the bill because the protagonist is young and so much of the plot hinged around her finding herself.
DeleteThis is not a book I'm familiar with but you did an excellent job of fleshing out a complex story line and conveying the appeal factors. This sounds great! Excellent job and full points!
ReplyDelete