A review by suprconman99
Ice: 50th Anniversary Edition by Anna Kavan

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Hallucinatory is the word that comes to mind when attempting to describe this novel. It’s not immediately apparent, but gradually becomes so, just how unreliable and detached from reality the narrator is, so that what is objectively happening in terms of plot becomes difficult to parse, interwoven as it is with blatantly contradictory details and nightmarish sequences which may or may not be the imaginings of our unhinged anti-hero. Some have called it kafkaesque, which isn’t wrong, but the narrator himself felt like someone out of Lovecraft to me. A harrowing deconstruction of sexual violence and the male obsession with possessing and dominating women. Not a fun or enjoyable read by any means, and because you’re not on the narrator’s side you’ll tire of it well before it reaches its conclusion. But, I had to give it some stars for the author’s obvious creative genius and singular vision, which is formidable. I’ve also seen the interpretation that the titular “ice” is a metaphor for the deadening effect of heroin addiction on the author’s own life. Possible to read that in, but I think the focus is definitely meant to be sexual trauma and emotional isolation and despair.
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