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davidaguilarrodriguez 's review for:
On the Calculation of Volume I
by Solvej Balle
reflective
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:
No
Read for Women in Translation Month, August 2025
The fact that this is getting so much acclaim reveals how people have really lost the ability to tell what's good anymore.
This was a slog. A promising premise — a woman reliving November 18 over and over — should lend itself to profundity or emotional heft, but here it never rises above the banal. Instead of insight, we get endless repetition without purpose, like a Groundhog Day stripped of humor, philosophy, or character.
The fact that this is getting so much acclaim reveals how people have really lost the ability to tell what's good anymore.
This was a slog. A promising premise — a woman reliving November 18 over and over — should lend itself to profundity or emotional heft, but here it never rises above the banal. Instead of insight, we get endless repetition without purpose, like a Groundhog Day stripped of humor, philosophy, or character.
The reading experience was distancing from start to finish: slow, circular, and relentlessly dull. Balle gestures toward themes of marriage, routine, loneliness, and time itself, but without emotional engagement or narrative drive, they collapse into pseudo-philosophy. The prose, meant to be spare and searching, lands flat and self-regarding. Not offensively bad, just hollow.
The only thing I’ll carry from this book is frustration at how thoroughly it squanders its premise. Better than something like Orbital, but only barely — and only because the core idea had potential. If you want to see this concept executed at a 5-star level, skip this novel and just watch Groundhog Day.