Leena Krohn

What a delightful slow burn of a novel. It's brief (~200 pages) and told in blinks of connected stories (~2-3 pages each). It's a quiet story of slipping outside consensus reality, with each story chipping away at our narrator's mental state. The cover name-checks Kafka (maybe I should read more Kafka), but I noticed more [b:The Third Policeman|27208|The Third Policeman|Flann O'Brien|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343027425s/27208.jpg|3359269]'s bizarre yet satisfying alternate-world rules, [b:Little, Big|90619|Little, Big|John Crowley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435452849s/90619.jpg|518635]'s encouraging smile, a lower-key deprogramming ala [a:Grant Morrison|12732|Grant Morrison|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1311378308p2/12732.jpg]'s The Invisibles, or even the quiet [a:Gene Wolfe|23069|Gene Wolfe|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1207670073p2/23069.jpg] narrator who accrues a web of clues which point...somewhere?

In a calm and simple manner, it suggests that we all hoodwink each other into the "delusion we all share" from the book's subtitle. It invites us to let go of our stranglehold on who we think we are, to take a chance and step outside the cage of our performative proscribed identities. And all this without coming across pretentious or preachy. It's not the pink collage grenade of The Invisibles--it's closer to the all-pervading "rotting honey" smell from [a:Jeff VanderMeer|33919|Jeff VanderMeer|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1400594878p2/33919.jpg]'s Southern Reach.

An easy read with disturbing implications.… (altro)

Thirty letters sent to an old lover by a rather foolish woman who has come to live in a city of insects for reasons she has forgotten. As with most epistolary works, it takes a while to build. Several letters in the middle to end begin to suggest larger themes. However, full enlightenment never really seems to dawn on the protagonist (although there are hints here and there that she is either changing or losing her mind), so the end, which is undoubtedly the right one, seems unsupported by what has gone before. Loved Longhorn though. 3.5 stars.… (altro)

First, the copy I have is of a small hardback book that’s a delight to hold with an eye-catching slip cover, and drawings dotted throughout; a fast read at only 124 pages. The story from this Finnish prize-winning author is a fantasy told in a series of letters written by a foreign visitor and sent from an insect city. There’s no plot. We never know the recipient of these letters and only get to know the writer obliquely. I’ve heard the character writing the letters is female, but I never picked up on that and saw the letter writer as male, lost and adrift, having travelled to Tainaron seeking a promise that may never be fulfilled unless it’s found within. The most obvious nuance is one of change. There’s something visceral in the narrative, making this a book with an amorphous emotional impact. I’m sure many will find this nonsensical, bizarre, maybe pointless, yet there’s something memorable and almost poetic about the book. And, like a poem, will have significance for some, be meaningless to others.… (altro)