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maya69 's review for:
On the Calculation of Volume I
by Solvej Balle
disappointing after reading such great books right before it. it’s Good. i like the relatively sparse prose but it does get a bit tedious. it’s just quite slow for me. i appreciate the modernist influence. the ending was sort of anti climactic as well, i think my main problem is that things didn’t Happen. obviously the premise is that the day keeps repeating but even emotional moments didn’t seem to hold much significance. im not sure i’d continue with this series, im kind of fine leaving it at this. wouldn’t Mind reading the second volume but like… yeah. it was good i Liked it. i really liked a lot of the extended metaphors and especially the uses of water and music.
biggest problem was that it felt like she was describing the feeling of Having feelings rather than… feeling them. just quite detached. potentially a translation issue or a stylistic choice but regardless didn’t resonate. any energy from the first ~50 pages of the book dissipates and stagnates, whether emotional or otherwise. it’s a book in stasis about a woman in stasis. maybe i don’t like time loop narratives. i think that i definitely don’t. but i reckon if it had some more emotion and urgency and energy i’d have liked it more
biggest problem was that it felt like she was describing the feeling of Having feelings rather than… feeling them. just quite detached. potentially a translation issue or a stylistic choice but regardless didn’t resonate. any energy from the first ~50 pages of the book dissipates and stagnates, whether emotional or otherwise. it’s a book in stasis about a woman in stasis. maybe i don’t like time loop narratives. i think that i definitely don’t. but i reckon if it had some more emotion and urgency and energy i’d have liked it more