A review by lesleydunny
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

3.0

The Wall is a journal report written by a woman who has found herself isolated in a hunting cabin that has been cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible barrier, but with a few animals by her side. She writes detailed descriptions of her day to day experiences as she wrestles with this new life and how to survive. The report begins with the events that led her to the hunting cabin in the first place, but she is actually writing the whole thing after about two and a half years of already being there. This allows for quite a bit of foreshadowing to pique the reader’s interest. However, the nature of the report was quite bland for me, containing lots of accounts of caring for the animals, doing chores, and describing her own health. The author’s writing is very smooth, and there are some moments interspersed in the report that detail some beautifully charming scenes that I really loved. I could even appreciate the reflective thoughts the woman had as she contemplates her previous life and how it now compares with this new one where there is no “system” in place. But the lack of chapters, sections, or even page breaks made it tough for me to get really invested, and the monotony of her daily life overshadowed any of the more interesting events, which were few and far between and not given enough description or explanation. This would be a phenomenal book to study with a literary lens, but for me, that was not what I was expecting going into it based on the synopsis I read.