Review: The Past is Never

I love the lurid kind of Gothic fiction, but I also adore the (more literary) Southern Gothic genre in the tradition of William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison. I loved The Past is Never – a multi award-winning 2018 book now out in paperback. Check out my review below!

The Past is Never by Tiffany Quay Tyson. Published by Skyhorse on March 8, 2018. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.

Synopsis adapted from Goodreads: Siblings Bert, Willet, and Pansy know better than to go swimming at the old rock quarry. According to their father, it’s the devil’s place, a place that’s been cursed and forgotten. But Mississippi Delta summer days are scorching hot and they can’t resist. Then six-year-old Pansy disappears. Not drowned, not lost . . . simply gone. After years with no sign, no hope of ever finding Pansy alive, Bert and Willet have tried to move on. Years later, when clues surface drawing them to the murky depths of the Florida Everglades they may find the answer to Pansy’s mysterious disappearance . . . but truth, like the past, is sometimes better left where it lies.

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Review: The Past is Never

This was a beautiful and haunting book about family history and secrets, intertwined with the very fraught history of the American South. I thought the author did a masterful job at weaving together the story of a missing girl in the present with the terrible history of the town quarry and how secrets kept by those who came before her led to her disappearance.

Pansy is the wild and fearless youngest child of a family of three. She has two older siblings, Roberta (or “Bert”) and Willet. Their father travels a lot for his (very shady) work. Their paternal grandmother Clem is a herbalist who for years has helped women “in trouble.”

One hot summer day, the three children are cooling off at the quarry. The two older siblings are hungry and go off to pick berries, but Pansy insists on staying in the water. There’s a violent summer storm, the three are separated, and Bert and Willet can’t find Pansy anywhere. When the quarry is dragged, they find two sets of bones, neither of them Pansy’s.

The narrative moves forward and back in time, describing the bloody history of the quarry, built by slaves. Of the story of Clem and the women she helped. Of a woman named Fern and her baby. Of Bert and Willet as adults. Of a baby of a brand new generation. I’m not always a fan of non-linear narratives, but this one was artfully and beautifully done and gave the story so much depth and resonance.

If you love stories about family history, stories set in the American South, and stories that are very rich and multi-layered, definitely check this one out. If you are part of a book club that enjoys literary fiction, give this one a try!