A review by firstiteration
Permafrost by Eva Baltasar

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 Permafrost reads like poetry. The shapes of the protagonist’s relationships and life reveal themselves slowly, and reading is like watching a watercolour painting as it is gradually created. This really is the kind of book where details and images eventually come together to form a whole, especially since the ending was not what I expected when I began my read, but it felt right.

I know not a word of Catalan, so I’m grateful to Julia Sanches for translating this book. I can’t speak to the quality of translation itself, but the translator’s note makes it clear that Sanches worked with a great deal of care and attention to detail. In English, Permafrost is an excellent read.

As a lesbian, Permafrost is one of those books that feels real. I think many of us lesbians feel tense when lesbian sexuality is depicted in fiction because for so long, we’ve been portrayed by non-lesbians in a variety of ways that are exploitative or insulting, especially when it comes to sex. The sexuality in Permafrost is raw and honest. I think that’s incredibly valuable, both because as a lesbian I really enjoy reading it and because it’s good that this kind of portrayal of lesbian sexuality by a lesbian exists. It's not the only one, I know, but it's still rare enough that it's notable to me.

But it goes beyond the sex part of being a lesbian. The protagonist’s feeling of being mismatched with the life that is expected of her and especially the lives of her family members is explored well throughout the book. I really enjoy how Eva Baltasar portrays life, and next I’m going to see if any of her poems have been translated to English.

If you liked Permafrost, I suggest Qiu Miaojin’s Last Words from Montmartre or Virtuoso by Yelena Moskovich. 
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