Customer Reviews

Who are You?

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This is my first Anna Kavan novel. Her writing is fabulous. She really swept me away with her precise and poetical language. Her characters are also drawn out impressively well. There are many moments of solitude that she paints in such a way to make you feel like you are there. This novel in particular is about a young woman wishing that she could break away from her husband. It's not a topic that I would choose to read, but Kavan makes it feel like anyone stilted in their quest for freedom can relate.

There are refrains of birds chanting, "Who are you? Who are you?" There is the setting of a remote house in a jungle-like area. There are Indian servants. And there is a bastard of a husband who can't take it because his young wife has no interest in him at all. Though she does take interest in a vistor, who makes her feel something toward someone for the first time.

The chapters build up nicely, but something very bizarre happens toward the final fourth of the book. The book seems like it could have ended, but then it keeps going, and the visitor returns as if he never left even though he has been completely out of the picture for a while. Then events replay themselves, or so it appears. It seems that the book is retelling itself, although in an arguably less interesting way. It got to the point where I wondered if the publishers erred and put in a previous draft of the later chapters after the book was supposed to have actually ended. Or there is something going on that I was not aware of.

All in all, Anna Kavan does not disappoint. I am eager to read other of her works.