Recently, I sent my friend Alex a copy of a book I love, Lucy Sussex’s Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies. She hasn’t read the book yet, but she has given me permission to put up an edited version of the letter that accompanied it, because she knows how much I love this book. Alex also knows how I want everyone on the planet to buy and read this book.
On that note, have the links for Amazon and Book Depository. Unfortunately, Ticonderoga Publications have not as yet released an e-book (though I’m told they are working on it). For the record, I don’t use affiliate links, but Russell once gave me $10 off the books I was buying because apparently if I stand up in front of a room full of fellow geeks drunk I will yell “if you don’t buy this books you’re a fucking moron”. And then people will by the book. So that’s full disclosure for y’all.
Spoiler, not actually Matilda pictured. Probably.
The Letter
Dear Alex,
I feel like this is a personal gift, but it probably requires explanation and bonus probably-over-the-top review to explain why I love it so much. I am assuming you have not read this story or any of Sussex’s other work, but she is published internationally and I could be completely wrong. Laugh at me if this is the case.
Lucy Sussex is my favourite Australian writer for one reason: the story “The Queen of Erewhon”.
But back to “The Queen of Erewhon” and it’s importance to me. I read this story when I was around 13. It was in some Best SF Of The Year collection my grandparents had gotten me for Christmas. The collection as a whole was quite dull, the usual uninspiring, uninteresting cheap short story tricks that were driving me mad and getting me kicked out of English Lit classes and put me off attempts to “analyse” prose for a good few years.
That last story in the book, though. Right at the back. This story about these women’s lives and the tragedy of Erewhon, it… fucking haunted me. When I eventually reached it, I read it over and over and, unusually for short stories (where previously I found them useless and empty), I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Weird looks from the friends I was brave enough to show it to.
The story was eye-opening, a beautiful post-ozone-layer post-climate-change dystopia, brimming with history and layers and richness and such a strong fabric of a tiny community, its cultures and its world.
It was my introduction to the fact that lesbians and lesbianism were a real thing, not just an insult yelled at you from cars as you walked home. It was something real and something that could be okay. The story covers the whole spectrum, in hindsight, also introducing me to ideas of polyamory, bisexuality and thoughts I wouldn’t understand till a decade later. Can you tell this story hypnotised me and stayed with me a bit? I think it’s a rare gift of a short story to manage such a thing. Especially in a 13 year old.
Even if you don’t read the rest, or read only some of this book and hate it, please make sure that you read this story and consider that my gift. I will be shocked if you hate it or can’t understand why I love it so much.
Okay, I have tried to explain my feelings and the importance of this story to me so many times now. I think I might be in love with this story a bit. I want it to be seen more, and wow do I want friends to have opinions on it.