I know I don’t have a death stare in my real body (at least I think I know) but they should have given me one for my human suit. It would be very helpful for days like this. Experiencing statistics personally is an utterly vile thing. [p. 101]
The premise is simple: humanity is being Judged. The narrators are less simple: an alien technician and an alien anthropologist, both disguised as menopausal human women. The eponymous fruitcake is explained thus: '“Armageddon” is too long and ugly. “Collapse of all we hold dear” is too depressing and too long and not quite right. “Damn humans” is accurate, but doesn’t really describe an event in English, which is a strangely limited language. I might call it “fruitcake”.' [p. 33]. The result: a novel about female friendship, ageing, predestiny, corruption, amnesia and chocolate, set in Canberra in 2016.
The Year of the Fruit Cake: or Aliens with Irony a difficult novel to review without spoilers, especially since I'm not completely sure that I've understood the various identities correctly. I do understand that both the alien narrators, of different species, are accustomed to bodies that transition between multiple genders. ("We’ve all been slotted into female bodies... within a small range of ages that cover perimenopause... This is what is considered closest to our natural state back home... None of us are males because males transform even less than females, and none of us can live without our transformations." [p. 122]) One (or both) of the narrators is partly impervious to the 'mindwipe' which should suppress their original memories and selves, and enable them to live completely immersed in human society. One (or both) is suspicious of the gaps in their memories of Earth-life, which may have been cobbled together from a variety of sources including 'Meet Me in St Louis'. One (or both) has fallen in love as a human. One (or both) appreciates the importance of good chocolate. Both narrators understand that humanity is to be Judged for making Earth uninhabitable. But who is the Judge?
This novel is often very funny, sometimes quite depressing, but ultimately hopeful. The group of five women -- Diana, Trina, Antoinette, Janet and Leanne -- are at the core of the novel, and their consideration and love for one another is a good balance to the disrespect they encounter, the sense of being invisible, the helplessness, the rage. They treat one another with care: there's enough harshness in the world. And these five women hold the key to humanity's fate: which pleases me a great deal, as does The Year of the Fruit Cake overall.
My problem with writing about humans is that, in order to write about one, I virtually have to become one. [p. 25]
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