Ice, by Anna Kavan

Wow, reading this was a pleasure, after having read Jean Rhys. You can see almost a direct line from Kafka to Rhys to Kavan to more contemporary novels like Annihilation. The subject matter is banal; everything relevant in the novel is in the writing style and narrator voice. Hazy, elliptical, jumpy, somewhat surreal, sometimes seemingly non-linear, conventional explanations of plot deliberately left out. As you read you’re just in awe of a writer who can pull something like this off, and it feels so incredibly hermetic and thoughtful, rather than contrived. And the subtext of gendered violence penetrating every paragraph.

About mkevane

Economist at Santa Clara University and Director of Friends of African Village Libraries.
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