Customer Reviews

Primavera

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In Francesca Lia Block's follow up to her first fantasy novel, Ecstasia, she delves even deeper into the genre with the tale of a girl named Primavera. Primavera was born to 2 members of the band Ecstasia, which the first novel followed.

Primavera grew up in the lush gardens that her voice gave life to. She brought water to the dessert where her family had moved to raise her. This home was all she knew. But she dreamed of the city, Elysia, she had heard her parents speak of. Elysia was a constant carnival with costumes, music, and youth. Her family warned of the town's dangers but when a stranger comes to visit he leads Primavera out on a journey to discover knew things.

What she discovers are worlds with mystical creatures, dangerous situations, and great adventure. As she travels through these places you feel like you are along side her as you can actually picture the magical places.

Definitely one of Block's finer works of the imagination. Read it when you feel like dreaming and fantasizing.

Each time I read this book, I am captured by the Block's exquisite characterizations. Along with Ecstasia, I think this pair of stories are the finest Block has written. The world she creates is practically tangible and has invaded many of my dreams. There are few writers who are able to create a purely fantasy setting and make it so touching and believable. I have enjoyed Block's other books, and have used her writings for the basis of an English thesis. I am sorry that she has not continued with the fantasy genre and has moved into more realistic settings. Each book she writes, though, has an element of the supernatural and surreal

Primavera is an story beautifully written. Filled with love, bizzare creatures, dangerous circumstances, and such an abundance of imagination!! This is one of the ultimate books of fantasy that was ever printed!!! As our young Heroine leaves her utopian home to find new exciting things, she describes it so vividly you'd fel like you were there. This book takes you to a whole other level of fantasy and excitement. You'll love this book if your a poet, fantasy writer or reader, or just a person who loves to dream!! Its a delicious morsel for your imagination. Enjoy!!

Francesca Lia Block's novel "Primavera" is the sequel to an earlier novel "Ecstasia," which should probably be read before continuing with this one. I hadn't read "Ecstasia", and though this didn't prevent me from grasping what was going on here, I couldn't help but feel that some of the action that takes place would have been better understood and more poignant had I previously read "Ecstasia".

From what I gathered here, "Ecstasia" concerned a four-person band (Calliope, Dionisio, Paul and Rafe) who lived in the beautiful city of Elysia which revered the youthful and cast out the old - much like Hollywood. Their band Ecstasia was a huge success, but eventually they tired of the city and escaped to the desert, where their music created a paradise for them to dwell in. Calliope and Dionisio married and had a daughter, the focus of this sequel, called Primavera.

Despite living in paradise, Primavera is discontented. She is fascinated with the thought of Elysia, tired of the confines of the garden and tragically in love with Paul, who cannot love her in return given that he's gay and `married' to Primavera's uncle Rafe. Thus when a handsome man comes to the garden with a horse-headed motorcycle, Primavera discreetly makes her escape. It is her adventures to and within Elysia that make up the bulk of the book; she meets a range of interesting characters, vivid landscapes and surreal situations.

I can't go any further without mentioning the language Block instigates in her novels, as anyone who is unfamiliar with it can be caught quite off-guard. The best way to describe any of her books is to say they are prose-poetry novels, and as such can be quite difficult to grasp (a good comparison would be to Patricia McKillip's novels) as the language is dense and metaphorical, and sometimes obscures narrative and meaning. Some may be frustrated at this, and at times I myself wondered if the fanciful style was simply used to cover-up a weak storyline, but though its true that certain sentences can feel a bit too "flowery", they are an essential part of Block's novels and a necessary component to the atmosphere of the story. Some of her sentences and ideas are utter gems. My main problem lay with Primavera's "songs" , sporadically placed throughout the novel; a better description of them would have been "poems" considering they cannot be set to music, and often interrupt the flow of the novel rather than provide insights into it.

But for all of this, the story itself is fascinating, which can best be described as a coming-of-age story for a young teenage girl. Primavera feels the restless spirit of most young people, one so strong that it induces her to leave paradise, brave several terrifying dangers and return once more, much like the story of the Prodigal Son (or in this case daughter). Some of the situations she finds herself in are truly harrowing, and therefore I recommend not tackling this novel unless you're prepared to handle the issues Block raises, which include drug-use, rape, homosexuality, abandonment, cruelty and possibly even bestiality. Of course, Block's gift is her ability to hide the controversy of this ideas behind her iridescent language (reminding me of the similar technique used in Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange") and so if you are super-sensitive to these issues, rest assured Block does not explore them in minute detail, leaving such things up to the reader to ponder. It's up to you as to how deep you read into them.

The best feature of "Primavera" is the use of Greek mythology and other fantasy elements to create a world totally unlike our own, and yet resonating in our minds; a world made up of carnival-cities, humid desert gardens and glass towers in the desert and filled with hybrid creatures: mermaids, giants, fauns, centaurs and bird-women. Block's world is one that we could never really go to save in our imaginations, and yet it feels real.

So "Primavera" comes recommended, especially if preceded with "Ecstasia", as do Block's other novels. If you enjoy the fairytale ambience of "Primavera", then Block's anthology of re-imagined fairytales "The Rose and the Beast" should be your next stop.

Primavera--in love with her uncle's lover--runs away from the Edenic home and family to the dark drug-addicted and violent world of the city, meeting half-breed orphaned children and her aunt. While Primavera is a better tale than some of Block's others, it still suffers from her meandering stream-of-consciousness telling which is more repetitive and dull than poetic and meaningful. The book is much more allegorical than fantasy, taking away the magic that could be there. Grade: C+

I loved this book, as well as Ecstasia.
I started looking around the library one day, and picked up Baby Be-Bop. I now own Dangerous Angels which is the Weetzie Bat books combined into one book, Ecstasia, and Primavera. I have read everything she has written in YA except for The Hanged Man.

This is about Calliope and Dionisio's daughter, Primavera. Primavera lives in 'Paradise,' which was once a desert but is now flourishing with life. When Primavera sings her songs, which everyone thinks she got from Paul, flowers bloom.

A stranger comes to the Paradise one day, he is called Gunn. He has a metal horse headed motorcycle that he will trade Primavera for a song.
She finally does sing and he leaves the bike in a cave for her.

She goes to Elysia, the sweet city that is thriving of the young and he old go Under. She has many different and various 'adventures' along the way there, and the way home.

This is absolutely a GREAT BOOK!
read it.

This is my favorite book in the entire world! I was in seventh grade when I first read it, i am nineteen now and I love it just as much. this book is full or magic, love, and enchanting characters! Block creates a whole world, one that through her words you can see, feel and long to visit. She is a genius and I have been a fan from the first book! I absolutely love it. This book was out of print a few years ago and would have cost a whopping three hundred to get. I am so happy that it has been re released! the only flaw i find in this novel is the new ending! I remember the ending clearly from the original version, and some of it is missing in this new addition. Still, the book is just as tantalizing and i recommend it for anyone who loves fantasy, love, or just needs a mystical place to surrender to!

This book is absolutely beautiful, yet new readers should know it is a lot more intense then her previous book, estacia. Primavera brings life to the desert, flowers growing when she sings. But she is not happy. She is in love with a man she can never have, and her mom can read her every thought. So she runs away to elysia, where she can pursue her own destiny.
In elysia, she fid wonders and horrors. She meats giants who try to enslave and rape her(as I said-more intense then the previous book) but manages to get away by singing, her voice cutting throuh there endless rumes."Fi, fi, fo, fum etc."
She then meets her half sister, whose lover slaved "circus" of half-humans/half-animals(Francesca has said she wrote this book as away to deal with deeply personal issues, and I dont doubt it, there are many hidden messages in this book.)
Eventually, primavera enters the circus, where the man holds and rapes her, stealing her voice. Soon she meets her half sisters lover, a cenutar,who heals her voice. This book is mystical, magical, and truly enchanting, but also one of the most intense FLB books I have read. Definately worth reading, but be prepared.

It was a lot better in my memory of it compared to when I actually reread it. Seemed a little immature the second time around.

I loved Violet and Claire. That was my first FLB book and I read such rave reviews about Primavera so I picked it up and read it.The beginning was very good but as story progresses it becomes boring and hard to pay attention to. Towards the end I caught myself skipping pages. It was that hard to read! I wish this story only focused on Prima, Paul, Rafe and Dionisio.
They are the most interesting. There are so many characters in this book.. Too much at times. I hope I can read this book again and enjoy it but for now I hate it.