The Beauty

September 1, 2017
Whiteley's latest pits the repression of the patriarchy against the power of the environment.In a brisk 208 pages, Whiteley (The Arrival of Missives, 2016, etc.) spins the tale of Nathan, the resident bard of a post-apocalyptic tribe afflicted by a bacterial disease that has taken the lives of its women. Overwhelmed by the notion that they are the last generation of humans on Earth, the men of the tribe grow despondent. That is, until the women they've lost return, reincarnated as "walking mushrooms" who invert the gender dynamics of the heterosexual relationships the men of the tribe profess to miss so much. As these dynamics become increasingly graphic and extreme, so do the tensions between the men, some of whom view their new lovers as saviors while others consider them captors. Teeming with the spirit of feminist speculative trailblazers like Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Joanna Russ, Whiteley's original, gut-wrenching tale renders a world that exists somewhere between post-apocalyptic and fable-esque. Her characters are as multidimensional, nuanced, and somber as her writing, which soaks the reader like a hot bath, and the novel's clever premise surprises as it evolves in an unforgettably grotesque yet thematically justified fashion, despite at times feeling slightly didactic. In short, Whiteley lives up to her various accolades (Guardian Short Story Award finalist, Shirley Jackson award nominee, etc.) with her sixth book-length effort, which channels the eerie spirit of Kelly Link and the environmental surrealism of Jeff VanderMeer. A murky delirium of sinuous language and unnerving storytelling that will delight both experienced genre fanatics and literary fiction lovers alike.

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October 2, 2017
Whiteley’s solid first book-length volume in the U.S. pairs the title story, published in 2014, with “Peace, Pipe,” a new work. “The Beauty” examines self-isolated men who call their community “the Group.” Their saga is told by Nathan, who continuously reimagines the shaping power of his storytelling role. After an epidemic kills off all women, strange mushrooms grow from their graves, taking on shambling female shapes. Are they medicine? Golems conjured by male mythologizing? Evolution’s next stage? Nathan considers—and the Group resists—each possibility, with catastrophic consequences. In contrast, “Peace, Pipe” features a narrator who’s so isolated that he hallucinates conversations with a pipe in his quarantine chamber. Pipe proves a sympathetic interlocutor for Alex’s history as an interstellar diplomat, whose mistake has caused a socioecological cataclysm still underway on the planet Demeter. Steeped in regret, Alex snatches at an opportunity for one small redemption: the rescue of his planetside friend Thumbs. The question is how much redemption is going to cost Thumbs, his persecutors, Alex, and even Pipe. Of the two stories, “Peace, Pipe” is the more enticing, offering a greater range of emotion and whimsy. The contrasting moods make for a well-constructed dyad that questions the limits of seeing oneself in the other.

October 1, 2017
In an unspecified future, a worldwide epidemic has killed off all the women. The Group, a small community of men and boys, wait out their days until they are all dead. Then, shockingly, a discovery is made: creatures who, while they barely resemble women, take the men as their partners, binding with them in a sexual way. Nathan, the story's narrator, calls the creatures the Beauty, a collective name for beings who seem to be individual parts of a greater whole. Soon the Group is faced with some tough choices. Is the idea of the Beauty repugnant? Should melding with them be forbidden? Or have the men found some acceptable respite from the bleakness of their futures? Reading like something Adam Roberts might have written (perhaps in his Land of the Headless mode), this short novel, which was originally published in 2014 by Unsung Stories, is elegantly written, balancing on the line that divides prose from poetry. As a bonus, this book includes a second story from the author: Peace, Pipe, an SF tale about the difficulties of crossing the language barrier between alien species.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)