The Past is Red, by Catherynne M Valente

[sophia_sol]

In a surprising turn of events I actually really liked this book. I often do not get along with Valente's writing, but on rare occasions she manages to write something that works for me, and it turns out this is one!

This book began life as a short story in 2016 (The Future Is Blue), which is now the first 32 pages of the published novella. I enjoyed the short story back in the day, and it was fascinating to see where things went from there, after what was the end at the time!

It's a post-apocalyptic climate disaster story, but told from the perspective of someone for whom the flooded and garbage-filled earth is the only world she has ever known, and she loves her world and her people and her life, even though/even when things are really hard.

And a lot of really hard things do happen to her! But she always finds something to love, something to live for, something to hope for. I loved Tetley, and I loved getting to see the world through her eyes.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I was trying to figure out why The Past is Red was sounding so familiar -- it being expanded from the short story explains it, so thank you for solving that mystery for me. (I also vaguely remember enjoying the story -- or at least not disliking it, which is my usual reaction to Valente's writing* -- so maybe that bodes well for me and this book if/when I end up reading it.)

*the only book of hers I really liked was Refrigerator Monologues

[sophia_sol]

yeah, I started reading The Past is Red and was like, "HOW can this be so very familiar if this book was only published last year and I definitely haven't read it??" so figuring out about the short story was a real aha moment!

Of the various Valente books I've tried in the past, nearly all of them have been DNFs because I bounced off them so hard. The only one I read all of was Deathless, and even then, though I really liked it, there were definitely moments were I was like, "could this please be a little LESS Valente." But somehow The Past Is Red felt like nearly the perfect amount of Valente to me!

[hamsterwoman]

"could this please be a little LESS Valente."

Yes, this is basically my reaction to 90% of the Valente works I've tried XD I mostly bounced off them, finished Space Opera and a few short stories for Hugo homework, but, like, grudgingly for the most part. (Never tried Deathless, because I'm leery of non-Russian authors writing about Russia at the best of times, and with the handicap of it being Valente, well...)

[sophia_sol]

Ooh yeah that's so fair about Deathless, I'm uh, lucky enough, I guess, to not know enough about Russia to know what she got wrong! But I would NOT be surprised if there were problems, lol

[genarti]

Ooh, intriguing! I haven't read much Valente, but I mostly bounced off what I have, but I keep meaning to read more of the ones that seem likelier to be up my alley in hopes that one of them will turn out to work for me after all. This sounds promising, at any rate! Post-apocalypse stories of rebuilding and finding things to love and hope for are very much my jam.

[sophia_sol]

This one would be worth giving a try to, then, I think! You can give it a low-stakes try by reading the short story I linked to start with, to see if the approach this book is taking works for you!

[chestnut_pod]

This is promising! I am a person who likes a plurality of Valente, but I am very hard to sell on climate dystopia, so knowing that it's a hopeful climate dystopia makes me much more likely to try this one out.

[sophia_sol]

yeah, climate dystopia is a hard sell for me too, so it was a pleasant surprise that I was okay with this one! I hope you enjoy it too, if you do end up giving it a go!

[lirazel]

Color me intrigued!

[sophia_sol]

it's not a book that would work for everyone but I think it's worth giving it a try!