{"id":28983,"date":"2021-05-31T11:15:05","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=28983"},"modified":"2021-05-31T11:15:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:15:05","slug":"rachel-heng-before-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2021\/05\/31\/rachel-heng-before-the-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Heng: “Before the Valley”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Before the Valley”<\/strong><\/span>
\nby Rachel Heng<\/span>
\nfrom the June 7, 2021 issue of The New Yorker<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”#003366″ text_color=””]I[\/fusion_dropcap] don’t think I heard about Rachel Heng’s debut novel from 2018, Suicide Club<\/em>, but it appears to have fetched a premium due to a bidding war and to have done very well. Heng was only thirty! She has published quite a bit of short fiction in some great magazines, but I believe this is her first in The New Yorker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“Before the Valley” takes place in a Singapore retirement community called Sunrise Valley. When it begins, one of the residents, Hwee Bin, is looking forward to a birthday party because it’s one of the best places to socialize, something she was not good at even “before.”<\/p>\n

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\u201cBefore\u201d was the shorthand residents used for their lives prior to Sunrise Valley. Before wasn\u2019t talked about often; it felt unseemly somehow, self-indulgent, to dwell on one\u2019s past life. What did it matter, for example, that Cynthia, from Ward 8, had been an actress who starred in the horror lms that used to be made here in Singapore, back in the sixties? Or that Hasmi, from Ward 12, had been a lawyer and was even rumored to have owned his own rm? They were all here now, Sunrise Valley residents one and the same. Sure, Cynthia was in a two-bedder with a garden view, and Hasmi had one of the few, coveted, and very expensive single wards. They still had to come to the linoleum-tiled dining room each morning for the same soggy kaya toast and watered-down coffee. Still took their seats each evening in front of the television, which blared, alternately, English-, Chinese-, Malay-, and Tamil-language soaps. Wards aside, were the residents not all in the same boat? The details might differ\u2014mild dementia, children too busy to visit, loss of leg function, no living relatives\u2014but the crux of the matter was the same. You were stuck in Sunrise Valley regardless, whether it was paid for by your dwindling pension, the government, or an erstwhile child.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As we begin the summer in earnest, I hope it’s a good one for you all. I look forward to reading this and many other stories! Please feel free to let us know your thoughts on “Before the Valley”!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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