bartlebee 's review for:

Kallocain by Karin Boye

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Jag hörde inte dit. Jag var med om att skapa en ny värld.

Karin Boye's dikter have long since sat on my parents bookshelf and eventually my own. From time to time I was able to read through a few, but I was greatly pleased to finally have found the time to read through Kallocain (read it along with a buddy for discussion)

The copy I loaned from the library had a introductory biography piece which proved to be apt for setting the setting. I had looked up her past before, but I was nicely surprised to learn more in depth about her various dealings, her travels, her political engagements, her feminist activism and her visits to both the Soviet Union and Germany, on the eve of WW2. 

I think it's important to view Karin as an intellectual. Someone who is not only interested in expressing her deepest emotions in text, but also someone who engages with societies structures and challenges it's status quo

The first chapter was off to a hot start for me. I found various snippets to be filled with beautiful writing which aptly put intellectual critiques I had been reading in parallel or discussing with others. She felt very on the mark. These moments became lesser as the book drove forward. From time to time there would be a passage which would stop me in my tracks. Like writing about contemplation of suicide, knowing she herself would succomb to such a fate or the organic development of human organization. Från oss går det levande ut. Once a revolution recieves a leader, it is already finished. 

The highlight of this book is absolutely its crtique of the state. While the writing itself could likely use some editing (I wonder how much editing occured?), I understand this to be a cult classic due to its lack of contemporaries. Boye dives into a world, which eerily feels like Nazi Germany in an alternate reality where they don't lose the contest that was WW2. She does an amazing job giving us a taste of the human struggle of trying to obey under propoganda as the human spirit tries to resist. I wonder how much of this was inspired by her own struggles with being queer. 

Wow, I absolutely loved the feminist take towards the end. Unknowningly, the night I read the passage by Linda, I had discussed with my friend capitalism's control over the women's body in order to reproduce the labor force necessary to sustain itself. Another instance where Karin shows herself to be as well read and thought as any of her contemporaries. Truly standing the test of time

I am very happy I read this book. I found it somewhat difficult in swedish as some of the vocabulary was outdated and she tended to draw sentences a little long, but I was captivated to the end. Despite being a dystopian novel, I found it hopeful. May we all find our ökenstad and our inner spirit that will lead us there