Harper Voyager: 360 pages, $32
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When I learned R.F. Kuang was taking readers to hell in her newest book, I groaned. Haven\u2019t we done this enough? I\u2019m not just talking about Orpheus retrieving Eurydice, Dante\u2019s \u201cInferno\u201d and Virgil\u2019s \u201cAeneid.\u201d Nor the 19th century poets and cults obsessed with everything chthonic. We as a culture have done katabasis \u2014 that is, a journey into the underworld \u2014 a lot recently: Silvia Moreno-Garcia\u2019s \u201cGods of Jade and Shadow\u201d (2019), Leigh Bardugo\u2019s \u201cHell Bent\u201d (2023) and Netflix\u2019s \u201cKaos\u201d (2024).<\/p>\n
(I\u2019m sure it has nothing to do with the political instability we\u2019re facing. We probably shouldn\u2019t worry about the historical pattern of writers becoming obsessed with the living journeying into hell whenever things aren\u2019t going great in society. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s fine.)<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t think there could be much new here. \u201cKatabasis\u201d is a dark academia fantasy where the protagonist \u2014 a psychologically wounded but talented student, lacking self-love, perspective or even just one friend to talk sense into her \u2014 journeys into hell to fetch the soul of a mentor she\u2019s in thrall to \u2026 and may have killed. If this sounds familiar, well, Kuang\u2019s newest hero, Alice Law, does bear similarities to Bardugo\u2019s Alex Stern.<\/p>\n
But I was wrong \u2014 there are new things here. The journey into hell has been done, but it hasn\u2019t been done quite the way R. F. Kuang does it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like \u201cBabel,\u201d which relied on R.F. Kuang\u2019s knowledge of linguistics, \u201cKatabasis\u201d is rich and textured because of her familiarity with the subject.<\/p>\n
(John Packman)<\/p>\n
Alice Law and her partner-in-hell, Peter Murdoch, are acutely aware of their literary predecessors, even guided by maps based on those journeys. They go because their doctoral advisor, a man they hate and worship in equal measure, has died and they need him back to ensure they get a good teaching position after graduation. It\u2019s a flawed reason, and a greedy one, a fact neither character seems to understand. They don\u2019t seem to see themselves fitting in anywhere in hell, actually \u2014 that tension is both annoying and amusing. Their trip is an intriguing take on the journey; things in hell have changed since Virgil played tour guide.<\/p>\n
In \u201cKatabasis,\u201d we\u2019re once again treated to the power of Kuang\u2019s mind. It takes a smart person to write geniuses, and Alice and Peter are brilliant, if blinkered. Like \u201cBabel,\u201d which relied on Kuang\u2019s knowledge of linguistics, \u201cKatabasis\u201d is rich and textured because of her knowledge of the subject, her deep familiarity with its shape and philosophy. Also like \u201cBabel,\u201d \u201cKatabasis\u201d revolves around the dark inequities cracking the foundations of a fictional department in an Oxbridge school, a place people would kill to get into and then die in while they\u2019re there.<\/p>\n
A warning: The nesting doll of literary references in \u201cKatabasis\u201d will be a delight to some and impenetrable to others. People who aren\u2019t familiar with chthonic myths might want to do some research before reading. For example, there\u2019s a joke toward the end about how John Gradus is clearly a fake name: The reference is never elucidated, and you\u2019ll only get the joke if you know the phrase gradus ad parnassum means \u201ca step toward Parnassus,\u201d which is the mountain where Apollo and the Muses live in Greek myth, and that the phrase is often used by scholars to indicate a process of gradual mastery over a subject. So John Gradus is a journeyer in his own right, learning where he went wrong in life to reach the Lethe and reincarnate. This novel is not for the intellectually indifferent.<\/p>\n
But generally, \u201cKatabasis\u201d is a more mature and less showy novel than Kuang\u2019s earlier works. Perhaps this isn\u2019t surprising; Kuang\u2019s first book was published when she was just 21 and she\u2019s 29 now. A person\u2019s 20s are transformative even if they don\u2019t study in China, at Oxford, at Cambridge and at Yale in quick succession. Readers who thought \u201cThe Poppy War\u201d trilogy didn\u2019t stick the landing, or that Rin became insufferable by the end, will be pleased that \u201cKatabasis\u201d does stick it, and that Alice evolves.<\/p>\n
Some of the same themes from \u201cThe Poppy War\u201d return \u2014 the horror of sex, the power of delusion to transform reality. But when Alice faces challenges, she lets go of her delusions. Peter is not disposable like Kitay. Both Alice and Rin sacrifice, but this isn\u2019t Rin\u2019s abject despair; Alice\u2019s sacrifices are more nuanced than Rin could ever fathom.<\/p>\n
As much as \u201cKatabasis\u201d has in common with Kuang\u2019s earlier works, tonally it might have most in common with \u201cYellowface.\u201d Unlike the brutality of \u201cThe Poppy Wars\u201d or the tragedy of \u201cBabel,\u201d \u201cKatabasis\u201d maintains a slight wry humor throughout. There\u2019s a satirical subtext here that wasn\u2019t present in her earlier earnest fantasies. I mean, these PhD candidates choose to go to actual hell rather than have an honest conversation with someone at Cambridge. Kuang shows us how self-destructive that is, intriguing as the story reads. Like June Hayward\/Juniper Song in \u201cYellowface,\u201d Alice and Peter are so trapped in the flimsy reality they\u2019ve constructed that they can\u2019t see the obvious way out.<\/p>\n
Because in \u201cKatabasis,\u201d hell is not other people. It\u2019s defending your dissertation.<\/p>\n
This is my one sticking point with writers taking readers to hell. Cultural images of the underworld are bound by writers, and though Kuang introduces new elements, she adheres largely to their canon. Her take on Dante\u2019s City of Dis is \u2014 spoiler! \u2014 a regal college where academics spend eternity writing self-absorbed dissertations (shortened by real PhD candidates, of course, to \u201cDiss\u201d \u2014 there\u2019s that wry humor). There\u2019s no feedback, no advisors, just faith that someone\u2019s reading. I understand why a PhD student would envision this as the worst kind of punishment, but I\u2019m not convinced it\u2019s the worst possible sin.<\/p>\n
\u201cKatabasis\u201d is hell filtered through a scholar\u2019s eyes. Orpheus\u2019 journey has stood the test of time because he went for love. Dante went for knowledge. Alice goes for a recommendation letter. It\u2019s an intriguing addition to the canon, but for mere mortals who haven\u2019t survived abusive, plagiaristic and mystifying advisors to earn Oxbridge degrees \u2014 or even just bad bosses \u2014 it might be unrelatable.<\/p>\n