Review: LOVE IN THE TIME OF GLOBAL WARMING by Francesca Lia Block
I love a good mythology book. I also love a good retelling of a classic. In her latest, Francesca Lia Block manages to blend the mythology and themes of The Odyssey with a story of survival in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.
Henry Holt & Co., August 2013.
On the day the Earth Shaker came, Penelope was in her family’s pink house in a nice neighborhood in L.A., feeling average teenage feelings — love for her friends, annoyance at her brother, and the slightest bit of resent toward her parents (who were both paranoid about chemicals in health products and the possibility of natural disaster). Now calling herself Pen, trying to shed the identity that she had Then, she is forced to leave her home when marauders come. She is surprised when one of the men doesn’t attack her but tells her to run, take his van, and leave.
Pen’s first stop is a big box retail shop, where she raids the aisles for supplies, shocked to find it hasn’t already been looted. But soon she discovers the monster who has taken up residence at the store. A half-blind giant. Fighting for her life, Pen takes out the creature’s other eye. She now knows there is no going back to Then. And she goes on, her only hope finding her family. And along the way, she finds others. First of all, Hex, the beautiful boy at the Lotus hotel. He has secrets of his own, but Pen needs an ally. With only a tattered copy of Homer’s The Odyssey and a sliver of hope to guide them, they have a whole new world to navigate.
In a style that is Francesca Lia Block‘s alone, LOVE IN THE TIME OF GLOBAL WARMING is heartbreaking and true and beautiful in a way that only this author can write. It is not only a story that parallels the Odyssey, but that approaches the popular trope of dystopia with a touch of magical realism. With characters who are both dreamy and strikingly real, a voice that must be heard, and a landscape that feels frighteningly true to a possible future, this is a book that can’t be missed. I’d love to see this one with some shiny stickers on its cover come award season.
