The Beauty

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.