A review by atticmoth
Machines in the Head: The Selected Short Writing of Anna Kavan by Anna Kavan

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Reading Anna Kavan during the aftermath of one of the worst depressive episodes of my life is funny because even if I didn’t like this book, I felt like I understood it. Machines in the Head is a sort of “Greatest Hits” compilation of Kavan’s short stories, pulling from 5 different collections from 1940-1975. Despite this, they all felt like part of the same big work. Almost all of the stories were in first-person, translating the most depressing despair into externally-turned nightmare imagery. The fact that they’re all in first person makes it feel like the narrator isn’t crazy, she’s just having a logical reaction to a nightmarish world. Kavan’s hopelessness isn’t fun to read, nor is it cathartic at all, but I definitely could see where she was coming from. The best stories were the ones that were the most rooted in reality, “Ice Storm” and “World of Heroes”.