Defying Genres: The Book of Strange New Things


         The reader’s guide at the back of my copy of Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things asks if the book’s ultimate theme is love, fidelity, faith, or compassion.

         All of the above, I say.

         Protagonist and English pastor Peter Leigh leaves Earth and his wife Beatrice to act as a missionary on the planet Oasis. His primary goal, at least according the giant corporation that sends him there, is to be the company’s liaison to the planet’s natives, the Oasans, as Peter calls them. The corporation is having trouble getting the Oasans to happily give up the food that they grow, the only food that seems to grow on Oasis, to the small group of Earthling scientists studying the planet. Enter Peter, with a knack for spreading the word of God, and welcomed by the Oasans, who are eager to embrace the lord and Peter’s teachings. Peter is a success both as missionary and as grease between the aliens and scientists.

         Where he doesn’t succeed is with Beatrice, whose only method of communication with Peter while he’s on Oasis is by “shoot” (what the book calls interplanetary e-mail). While Peter is smitten with the Oasans, Beatrice struggles at home to support her husband’s endeavors while also watching the Earth fall apart (through her shoots we learn that famine, natural disasters, and violence take over in a major way on Earth soon after Peter left). She is also newly pregnant. Peter fails to realize the depth of Beatrice’s fears and loneliness, and only makes matters worse through his initially sparse shoots to Beatrice. She wants to be included in his mission, but he continues to invest more in his mission than into his marriage.

         I wondered through all 512 pages of The Book of Strange New Things what kind of book I was reading. Set in space, was this science fiction? Peter spouts so much Bible lingo throughout (to himself, Beatrice, and others), was it about religion? The Oasans are mysterious, physically small and seemingly sweet-was there going to be a twist at the end that saw them destroying the Earthling colonists? The Earth is collapsing due to extreme weather and scarcity of supplies, is this book a warning about climate change and greed? Or is this book, with so many pages dedicated to the shoots between Peter and Beatrice, about the work and struggle of marriage? Minus the theory of the Oasans (they never deviate much from sweet), I once again say: all of the above.

It's one of the strengths of the book, that the reader is never really certain where it’s headed. Many themes are tackled, many genres danced with, and Faber satisfies with all of them by the book’s end. The fear of dread that the Oasans would turn into murderous creatures or that the Earthlings would become sadistic torturers to the sweet Oasans plagued me throughout, but, to Faber’s credit, he never goes there. He surprised instead, making his book about the bigger questions that affect us all, Earthling and Oasan alike.

         (Many thanks to Victoria Lamothe and Ross Swofford for 
          recommending The Book of Strange New Things.)


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