This novella follows two agents of rival factions in what is essentially a time traveling, world-interfering war. Unlike the classic rule of time travel, here, interference and changing the narrative is the name of the game. Red and Blue somehow manage to get tangled into each others maneuvers, and though they belong to opposing groups, they manage to start a lengthy correspondence that takes them beyond where either could have imagined. I was excited to read this from the start, with its beautiful cover and raving reviews—and of course, the sci-fi premise of ‘time travel wars’. Yet, this novella is not really about the sci-fi mechanisms of time travel or wars or any of that—it’s about the relationship between the characters, extensive poetry, and meta musings on the nature of letters, time, war, love, etc.
This book was more difficult to get into that I anticipated. For starters, the language is as purple as you can get—the start drops you into Red and Blue’s world without any lifesavers, so it’s sink or swim while you attempt to understand what is going on. I am no stranger to elevated literary fiction, but the writing here seemed purple for the sake of being purple and poetic—it obfuscated this reader’s attempts to understand what was actually going on. As a rule, I generally enjoy following the plot rather than gazing deeply into the characters’ drama, and perhaps that is why I found this as hard as I did. There is a slight semblance, a shadow if you will, of plot, but the main focus here is the relationship—and the correspondence.
I did enjoy the correspondence between Red and Blue; lyrical quality aside, when I did understand what was going on, their exchanges were well-crafted, interesting, and even humorous at times. There were moments of clever wordplay, anticipated questions and answers, and some sprinkled bits of foreshadowing. Still, the plot was fairly simple and easy enough to predict. For the rest of it—there are some things about the world that I still don’t understand because of how it was written. Many of the sci-fi elements in the narrative are presented without comment or explanation, and I do like having some way of contextualizing those sorts of things. That the letters are constructed as an owl pellet or flayed into seal skin is fine, but I need to know how that is possible in this world. Metaphors and abstract language abound—if that’s your thing, you will adore this novella. I can appreciate them so long as there is a structure, a reason to the rhyme—here, it is like floating untethered in the zero gravity of space.
I also struggled to connect with either Red or Blue at first; though by the end, I began to understand them a little better. I wonder if this would be improved through a reread, knowing what I do now of how it all ends, but I do not want to subject myself to this prose more than I have to. The relationship between the two develops slowly but at times rushes off at a breakneck pace—I had to stop and wonder how all of the pieces fell into place. It is a sweet and endearing kind of love, but I am still not sure how all the early moments lead us to where we find ourselves at the end.
While I wandered aimlessly, grasping at straws, for most of the novella, the ending definitely brought things to a very satisfying conclusion. I reiterate that this might be a great one for rereading, but as I rarely reread things, I am perhaps lacking some of the appreciation I could have had for this. I do wish the presentation were focused a bit on some of the other elements of the narrative I mentioned above, instead of trying to present a purple prose of lyricism and poetry in lieu of a concrete narrative. That is why this book fell short of my expectations—but on the other hand, this may be a wonderful book for someone else for those very same reasons.
P.S. I also recommend reading Philip’s review, as it manages to encapsulate some of my thoughts in a much more comprehensive fashion.
