V171 reviewed The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
Review of 'The Wall' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Listen, it was a good book. Really good actually. The gentle, yet matter of fact way our narrator describes her new, strange life made this a simple read, but at the same time, so much care was put into the formulations of the relationships between the narrator and her companions. She really prepares the reader to be devastated at the end, which was hinted at throughout.
But I cannot give this book more than three stars because of the perplexing stylistic decision to have no chapters, no breaks, nothing but a relentless stream of descriptive narration cover to cover. It became exhausting and oppressive. For another book, this might have acted as a powerful stylistic choice. But here, the contradiction between an exhausting marathon of text and the often dull descriptions made this short <250 page book feel like an absolute slog. I found myself diagonally skimming the paragraphs discussing …
Listen, it was a good book. Really good actually. The gentle, yet matter of fact way our narrator describes her new, strange life made this a simple read, but at the same time, so much care was put into the formulations of the relationships between the narrator and her companions. She really prepares the reader to be devastated at the end, which was hinted at throughout.
But I cannot give this book more than three stars because of the perplexing stylistic decision to have no chapters, no breaks, nothing but a relentless stream of descriptive narration cover to cover. It became exhausting and oppressive. For another book, this might have acted as a powerful stylistic choice. But here, the contradiction between an exhausting marathon of text and the often dull descriptions made this short <250 page book feel like an absolute slog. I found myself diagonally skimming the paragraphs discussing the potatoes and the fire, and the byre and the Alm, and the forest, only to be then blindsided by the death of one of the dear companions. And that's basically what this was. It was a largely dry survival log punctuated by the deaths of animal companions the reader has grown to love. So do with that information what you will.
