It was so so good. It’s one of my favorite reads. It was L’Etranger meets The Employees meets a Hemingway novel. It was a great book about the absurdity of life and humans and our experiences together.

I felt like it really showed what the human needs to cross long hard times. It showed that we need companionship and drive. Ardor and the community of the other when was something that kept the main character grounded.

I think (like L’Etranger) it showed the “absurdity” of life and how to navigate it really well. It softens our ideas about the absurdity of life by putting the characters in a truly absurd situation. These women don’t know where they are, why they are there, or when it will change. The is compounded by their escape from the prison being anything but. As we learn more about the main character and her story we start to learn about the other women. The reader realizes that the life of the women who remember the before times are no less absurd than the main character’s. Wouldn’t you know it, life in its own right is absurd; this is reiterated by the closing monologue of the main character when she talks about her true death being the destruction of the pages that hold her story.

Combining the two aforementioned themes: what do we do? We tend to the earth we are given. The main character learns, builds, explores. She’s simultaneously aware of the fact that it’s good for her but ultimately for not. This is reiterated by the fact that she’s that last person on the planet; what she builds will never be seen again. This is a great lesson that’s hard to learn and harder to keep at the front of your mind: work for the sake of work is enough and human.

At risk of going over on my speaking time, the book is also so economical in its use of imagery and broad themes. The phases of the book I think represent the parts of life:

  • the prison: youth
  • the expanse: young adult
  • the village: adult
  • the final bunker: middle old?

The different needs and tasks and thoughts of the main character are often reflected and shaped by the environs they found themselves in. Again showing the odd interplay between life shaping us and the converse.

Overall, this book was wonderful. It deserves, if not calls for, many passes. I recommend you pick it up when you get a chance.

5/5