The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard [Family Reads]

Why we chose Scott Alexander Howard’s The Other Valley

We originally had a different book selected for this month’s Family Reads. Dad had started reading that other book but found it disinteresting. When he was over at my place one day, he picked up The Other Valley, which I had checked out from the library. He read the description and ended up taking the book home with him. I’m not sure what originally prompted me to add this to my TBR. I probably added it due it being CanLit with a speculative twist. The author’s academic focus on “on the relationship between memory, emotion, and literature” (author bio) heightened my interest.

Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town–except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.

When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate, yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.

Goodreads

An Small Aside Before We Begin

Me: Did you know we’ve been doing Family Reads for ten years?
Dad: What really? I have to tell Mom.
Jenna: This our fifteenth book.
Dad: 😲
Jenna: I think this is my favourite one we’ve read.

Our Discussion 💬

Never Let Me Go Comp

One of my all time favourite reads is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. Reading The Other Valley made me me want to reread Never Let Me Go. Dad hasn’t read it (though I previously convinced him to add it to his TBR) so I will say little about it. What I noticed is that The Other Valley is the first book I’ve ever read that I thought was quite similar, and in a good way, to Never Let Me Go. Similarities include the narrator protagonists, writing style, and a grand concept explored through a microcosm. I noted “reminds me of Never Let Me Go” just five pages in and I found it remained a fair and complimentary comparison by the end of the book.

***Discussion best enjoyed if you have already read the book – spoilers ahead!***

Time Travel Concept

Sometimes, it’s nice to read a high concept book that doesn’t wade too deep into whys and hows and whosits. There is a valley, and it is repeated over and over, and each valley is 20 years apart. Alright, now let’s tell a story.

The Other Valley‘s cleverly simple concept of time travel impressed me. I was surprised (in a good way) to find that I understood everything about it, even as further details and theoretically tricky situations were explored. In my view, the time travel theory explored here is the most likely or realistic one I’ve read about.

I initially thought that Odile would team up with Edme’s mother, to try to prevent his death. That was entirely inaccurate, lol. Odile doesn’t interact with Edme’s parents, neither the ones in her valley nor the ones from the east (ie the future). What I did end up being correct about was a time jump about halfway through the story. I was a little bummed that Odile didn’t end up becoming a conseilleur and that we wouldn’t get to explore her make difficult decisions, but I quickly recognized the storytelling value of having her become a guard and actually travel to ‘the other valley’.

Dad wondered why Odile quit her conseilleur opportunity. I offered that it was because she was too burdened by her experience with Edme. Dad further elaborated that maybe she was mad that she didn’t do anything to help him. I agreed that that element of the story made it quite sad for a time. Since this is a new author, we weren’t sure whether to expect a dreary or hopeful story. I’m glad there was a hopeful ending. I was worried for a time that it would get as bleak as Hannah Kent.

Once or twice a year I escorted visitors to Est 1, but I’d never seen anyone who fit my description or produced any feeling of knowing. The thought of seeing her there was disconcerting, but sometimes, if I was being honest, so was not seeing her.

The Other Valley Pg 155

When folks refer to the version of them that lives in the other valley, they use third person pronouns rather than I. This simple choice had Dad and I engaging in some philosophical reflection on the concept of self. When we envision ourselves in the future, we use “I”. But we’re operating on the assumption that there’s only ever one ‘I’, only one of ‘us’. The idea of your future self becomes twisted in a world where you can physically visit the place where your past or future self lives. The third person pronoun to describe yourself becomes a strategy to distance or differentiate yourself from that person. When we say he or she, we’re usually referring to someone other than ourself. From Odile’s perspective, her future self is someone else entirely.

Quotation Marks

The Other Valley does not have any quotation marks. I feel like this is a controversial stylistic choice, though I haven’t actually discussed it with other readers. Dad asked, “Is not using quotation marks a thing?” I said, “Yeah, it’s a thing, though I don’t really know why.” I’ve never heard a writer give an opinion on why they don’t use them. Are readers meant to have a common understanding of the effect of no quotation marks? (Like, for example, how we have a common understanding of how chapter breaks work). Or do the writers who dispense of quotation marks do it for their own reason?

Dad wondered if the purpose is to force the reader to pay closer attention, as that’s what he had to do while reading to keep track of who was speaking. He couldn’t just skim through. I wondered if it’s to force a different tone. Novels written without quotation marks (the only other one I can recall experiencing is Jose Saramago) sound different in my head – they feel more introspective or dreamy. I would love to hear from an author as to why they make this choice!

French Language

Another stylistic choice that will stand out to most readers is the use of French. The characters all have French names and clearly live in a French-speaking society. The novel is not translated from French, nor does the author have any French connections. Dad and I both wondered if any significance to the French language would be revealed by the end of the book. It is not! I found the answer in this CBC interview with Howard from the CBC. He notes there were a “few whimsical reasons why the French” first appeared in his drafts, but the main reason he used it is as follows:

It suited the world building I was doing in the book, because I didn’t want to go so far as to have sci-fi fantasy names that are based on fictional languages. But I also didn’t want to just have characters named Scott, for example. I wanted to hover between the familiar and the unfamiliar. And so for most of the readers of this book, Anglo readers anyway, I felt like the foreign language, the foreign names, suited that, that they achieved that same familiar, unfamiliar balance.

Scott Alexander Howard interview with Ali Hassan for CBC’s The Next Chapter

Hmm, okay, I guess! That sounds a little odd to me. Imagine if I wrote a book using Japanese language and names to make it more foreign – you’d think it was set in Japan. But I supposed there’s quite a difference between using a Asian language and a European language, especially one that has roots in Canada and can support the effect that the story takes place in an unfamiliar Western society. Dad’s not sure if was totally necessary or if it actually had the effect that Howard intended (familiar, unfamiliar balance). I did appreciate the French names, many of which were new to me but I agree with Dad – I’m not sure if using French language really contributed to the familiar, unfamiliar effect. Though I can appreciate Howard’s point about how he didn’t want to use mundane English names.

Assorted Notes

Dad wondered if Howard will write another book, pointing out that he hasn’t had done a lot of publishing. I hope so! The Other Valley is an impressive debut. We will be curious to see what, if anything, he puts out next.

A news article from a couple months after the book’s publication (so Mar 2024) mentions a TV series “in development”. We didn’t find any other news since then. I hope it comes to fruition! I would love to watch a limited series based on the story, while Dad pointed an ongoing series could further explore other stories set in the same world.

We both give this book ★★★★½. A moving and understated exploration of a world with physical time travel, The Other Valley lives up to this jacket copy: “Masterful and original, The Other Valley is an exquisite literary speculative novel and an affecting modern fable about the inevitable march of time and whether or not fate can be defied.”

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 Interview @ The Miramachi Reader
🍂 Reviews: Sarah @ Puss Reboots, Blair @ Goodreads

What’s your favourite time travel story?