Pilgrimage: The Book Of The People (1987) - Plot & Excerpts
*(Supongo que esto deberia llevar una advertencia por posible trigger de suicidio/depresión)*Lea está a punto de tirarse por un puente cuando es rescatada por Karen, quien casi a empujones y sin dejarle salida la lleva con ella a una reunión-conferencia-congreso donde empiezan a contar sus experiencias y revelan que son The People.The People son alienigenas que cayeron a la Tierra presumiblemente a principios del sigo XX, huyendo de un desastre planetario. La única diferencia con los seres humanos son sus poderes mentales: telekinesis, levitación, empatía, telepatía... y hasta algunos manipulan el clima. Genial ¿cierto?Más que una novela se trata de un libro compuesto por varias historias semejantes narradas por diferentes personas. Originalmente éstas se publicaron en revistas como historias cortas, y fueron reunidas con un hilo conductor en la forma de Lea escuchando acerca de The People.Las historias son: Ararat (1952); Gilead (1954); Pottage (1955); Wilderness (1956); Captivity (1958); y Jordan (1959). Mi favorita es 'Captivity' que fue nominada a un premio Hugo en 1959.Casi todas las historias involucran profesoras y sus alumnos. Tratan temas de discriminación y prejuicio, problemas mentales, y problemas físicos. The People adolecen de ser todos demasiados buenos para ser verdad, vale unos santurrones. Tal vez a algunos les moleste que sean muy religiosos, a mi no. (Y en cuanto a como hablan inglés cofSTargatecof , para algo les debe valer que sean telépatas, ¿no?). El otro lado de la moneda es POTTAGE -que hicieron pelicula en 1972: "The People" (razón por la que probablemente se me hacian conocidos)- cuando llaman 'malvados' a sus poderes (view spoiler)[ y después se sabe que fueron asesinados y perseguidos al llegar, lo que se me hace perfectamente razonable, dadas las circunstancias y las supersticiones (hide spoiler)]
This qualifies as a novel, I guess, though really it's a set of short stories originally published separately and then rather loosely linked by a slight framing narrative that is eventually perfunctorily wrapped up before the final story begins. The stories all deal with 1) the People, humanoid aliens trapped on Earth after the (unexplained) destruction of their home world and possessed of abilities that are really no different from magic (levitation, telepathy, telekinesis, some sort of ability to grab up sunlight and do something or other with it that's never really clear, etc.), given that they remain utterly unrationalized; and 2) some tramuatized/alienated/isolated/otherwise sad character who eventually is made whole thanks to the wonderful alien powers, mainly those of empathy and telepathy, with a healthy leavening of true love thrown in for good measure (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it gets tired as a repeated go-to plot device). The general sameness of the stories rather diminishes their impact as one proceeds; they were probably more effective as individual short pieces than as parts of this patchwork whole. They're not helped by Henderson's occasional propensity for purple prose, either. If you like fairly saccharine SF tales of metaphorical wounded birds getting their wings healed, you'll like this book, and you may find other elements to admire if you have a relatively high tolerance for sugar, overwriting, and repetitive stories, but overall, I was disappointed. I hadn't read any Henderson in a long time and recalled her work rather more fondly. . . .
What do You think about Pilgrimage: The Book Of The People (1987)?
After having my mom repeatedly urge me to dive into my parents' vast collection of science fiction novels, I finally gave in and read this book. And I was not disappointed. It is essentially a collection of connected short stories about an alien people marooned on Earth and hiding their special abilities to fit in. The only thing lacking for me was the ending. It didn't give me the kind of closure I wanted for all of these characters I had grown to love. Especially Lea, the character who anchors the framework around the short stories themselves. I felt like a few more explanatory pages after the last story would have made things less open-ended. But that is a small quibble, as overall I found the book quite excellent.
—Anya
This is one of those classic sci fi collections of stories, one that I read as a young adult reader and loved, and then have read again (and again) in the years since. The idea of alien refugees arriving unseen as interstellar boat people continues to resonate today, and the tales of humans reaching out to - or horribly rejected the 'other' remains relevant. The deceptively ordinary, mid-Western setting juxtaposes the familiar and everyday with the magical, extraordinary People, creating a unique imaginary world.
—Shirin Sabri
The first People stories were published in 1952. The books are just collections of her already published work. I don't regard her work as garbage in any sense but she did have a unique style which is not to everyone's taste. The most effective of her stories is "Pottage". What you say here is how I feel more about the second collection, No Different Flesh, especially its connecting story. Gabriel R.
—Gabriel C.
