hardcover, 176 pages
Published July 19, 2021 by Tordotcom.
The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.
Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she's the only one who knows it. She's the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it's full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.
But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.
The last remnants of humanity are adrift on a flooded earth, clinging to a giant life raft built from the refuse of the 'fuckwits' who destroyed it. Morbid & irreverent, with everything taken to extremes.
Reading time 3 days, 49 pages/day
A beautifully-written short novel that somehow manages to balance a bleak picture of a flooded earth where only the garage patch survives with hope and connection? Catherynne Valente is an incredible writer.
A fascinating novella following scenes in the life of Tetley, a delightfully unreliable narrator who is "a kind of post-apocalyptic Candide, always seeing the disaster of her existence as the best of all possible worlds." including an "I hope" speech on par with American Gods' "I believe"
Funny and irreverent and angry and at home and at peace with living on the garbage heap of our drowned future.
Tetley was born and raised in Garbagetown, the most beautiful place on Earth. Her friends include a bird, an otter, a plant, and someone called Big Red Mars.
The Past is Red is filled with the lavish, star-spangled language you expect from Valente. The story balances Tetley's rose-tinted optimism with the stark, horrifying nature of her reality.
I still resent how much trad publishing charges for ebooks, but at least this one was well-formatted and expertly edited.
