A review by newishpuritan
Armageddon House by Michael Griffin

This is an elegantly written little mindfuck of a book, which does not 'explain' its mysterious set-up at all. A novella not because of a paucity of ideas but because anything that might give too much away has been ruthlessly pared away from the text. Prose that is very clean and simple, and seemingly straightforwardly descriptive, but an overall effect that is opaque. It's always a bit pretentious to refer to Kafka in a review, but it's reminiscent of him – not so much in mood or tone, but in that crucial information for understanding the world depicted is withheld, not only from the reader, but seemingly from everyone inhabiting that world. Certain things are just taken on faith, except in this case it's not even clear what the tenets of that faith are. Though the title refers to the Christian (Greek?) idea of Armageddon there are several allusions in the text to Norse mythology and Ragnarok, but it's not actually clear if we're dealing with a pre- or post-apocalyptic scenario. I liked it a lot, but not a book for anyone looking for clear explanations and neat resolutions.