Whatever
you read about Catherynne Valente’s The
Refrigerator Monologues (2017)
beforehand (except this review, natch), ignore it. It’s not
superhero fiction. It’s not at heart tragic stories of women being
treated poorly by men. It’s not a lot of boo-hooing, woe-is-me,
where-is-my-recognition from the ladies who prepared all the feasts
in Lord of the Rings.
What it is, is vigorous, engrossing, human, and yes, fateful stories
of everyday women, with the sugar and confetti of superhero tropes
sprinkled over their lives in excellent, metaphorical fashion. (In
comic books, the opposite is typically true.) Written in Valente’s
vibrant/hilarious/cynical/delightful diction, it’s also a superb
set of stories.
The
perfect opener, “Paige Embry Is Dead” sets the scene by telling
Embry’s disastrous story. A promising research student, Embry
makes the mistake of showing off some of her work on volatile metals
to her boyfriend, mutating him into Kid Mercury in the process. Evil
lurking in the lab’s wings unbeknownst to Embry, her research is
cut short by tragedy—one that even Kid Mercury cannot help with.
What is likely the best story in the collection, “The Tragical
Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Pauline Ketch” tells the story of a
self-destructive person chasing what’s even worse for them. The
bad girl riding with the wrong crowd and too proud to think
differently, Pauline Ketch is the girl with starry eyes for James
Dean on a motorcycle through her version of hell. Valente capturing
lightning in a bottle, the character voice in this tale is pitch
perfect.
Aquagirl
meets her aquaboy, “The Ballad of Blue Bayou” somehow combines
undersea punk rock, superheroes, and parentage into a successful tale
of one woman dealing with male hubris—both the expected and
unexpected varieties. The slow decline of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed
country girl, “Daisy Green Says I Love You” takes the reader down
the spiral of one woman’s life as she takes ever more desperate
chances at making herself and others happy, and subsequent arrival in
Deadtown.
About a
female superhero, “The Heat Death of Julia Ash” tells an X-Men
style story about a woman with mutant powers who is kept under lock
and key “for her own good”. She breaks free, but perhaps not in
a fashion she would repeat. A full-blown romance turned upside down
when the boyfriend discovers a secret power hidden within his graphic
design paints, “Happy Birthday, Samantha Dane” literally and
figuratively closes the refrigerator door on the book. The
girlfriend (Samantha Dane) becoming a sought after photographer in
the aftermath, her only problem is that the city’s major art
sponsor wants to push the value of her work to the limit. The limit,
he finds.
On one
hand it’s perfectly clear Valente is having fun with the book’s
premise. Batman, Spiderman, Superman et al’s stories full of
gaping holes waiting to be filled in human fashion, The
Refrigerator Monologues does
just that. Where comic books are mainly a superficial, shallow
medium, Valente makes sure to flesh her characters out in skin and
bone, and by rendering the women as real people, makes her point.
Somewhere
between a novel (according to isfdb) and a collection (according to
the publisher), The
Refrigerator Monologues is a
novilection located—yes, located, that word sounds good—around
the central premise of Deadtown, a place where the wives and lovers,
girlfriends and sweethearts of superheroes and villains end up after
they die. A bardo cum
purgatory, Deadtown also is a frame, linking the lives of the six
women who tell their tales. Rather than hobbit wives getting
together a feast, the six come from a much wider spectrum: scientist
to photographer, punk rocker to black-leather moll, etc. Politically
motivated, Valente nevertheless avoids many of the potholes of modern
culture wars through the bloody-minded portrayal of living, breathing
women. While perhaps a bit too tragic (i.e. more passive than
active), the colorful realism of the women’s lives, coupled with
Valente’s amazing character voices, makes this book a real winner—a
far sight more intelligent than the majority of comic books.
Note:
I listened to the audiobook version of this… novilection, and can
say Karis Campbell’s reading was amazing. The fact I so rarely
mention audiobook narrations should give testament to how much she
wows.
A short
but powerful novel/collection, the following are the six stories
merged in Dead Town in The
Refrigerator Monologues:
Paige
Embry Is Dead
The Heat
Death of Julia Ash
The
Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Pauline Ketch
The
Ballad of Blue Bayou
Daisy
Green Says I Love You
Happy
Birthday, Samantha Drake
Awesome post.Thanks for sharing
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