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foxyreadings 's review for:
The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am
by Kjersti A. Skomsvold
This review can also be found at I read therefore I am
After Tales of the city, I went on with another book out of my literary comfort zone. Sounds like February is the month of literary experiments! Indeed, I seldom read contemporary novels, let alone contemporary novels featuring elderly people. But it was an interesting read. Not one I’ll remember for the rest of my life, but a pretty nice read nevertheless.
The faster I walk, the smaller I am is the story of Mathea, an old woman of over 90 years old who comes to realize that the moment of her death is coming closer and closer, and that there will most probably be no one to remember that she has ever lived when her life is over. So she’s determined to do something to change that.
This book is very short (less than 200 pages), and so will my review be. There only is one fact that is worth emphasizing about this novel, and this is its strongest point: it is both dark and light at the same time, and leaves you with two opposite feelings. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all? It’s quite hard to explain, but let me clear things up. The main theme of the story is loneliness and oblivion, which aren’t really joyful subjects. But the way the story is written makes it a light and even funny one despite the quite dark and sad subjects it tackles.
And same goes with the main character, Mathea. You also have these opposite feelings towards this old woman. On the one hand, she’s utterly naïve and often gives the impression of a little girl while what you’d expect from a 90-year-old is that she has seen enough in her life to have become wise by now. So the contrast between her age and her behavior makes her quite ridiculous, also her obsession with making sentences that rhyme is, and you like to kindly laugh at her. Yet on the other hand, you can’t help feeling sorry for this poor woman who has absolutely no one, who’s going to die in full ignorance and who is left to call the telephone information service asking for her own number to have some semblance of social life! There was one scene towards the end of the book that made my heart ache for the poor woman: she makes the effort of leaving her home and attends some event at the senior club (which is a real effort for her as she’s very shy and a home body) but there everyone, including the staff, ignore her as if she was a ghost! Although it isn’t told in a sad way, this scene tore my heart apart.
In short, this book was a very nice read. Well, I never felt compelled to read it, I needed something like 4 or 5 days to go through while if it had been amazing I would probably have finished it in a day or two given how thin it is. But overall it was a very nice discovery. I should really try to branch out my reading more often.
I recommend this book to you if: I don’t know… Well I guess that if you’re reading my blog it’s because we less or more have the same reading taste, so I’ll recommend it to those who’d like to read something out of their literary comfort zone.
After Tales of the city, I went on with another book out of my literary comfort zone. Sounds like February is the month of literary experiments! Indeed, I seldom read contemporary novels, let alone contemporary novels featuring elderly people. But it was an interesting read. Not one I’ll remember for the rest of my life, but a pretty nice read nevertheless.
The faster I walk, the smaller I am is the story of Mathea, an old woman of over 90 years old who comes to realize that the moment of her death is coming closer and closer, and that there will most probably be no one to remember that she has ever lived when her life is over. So she’s determined to do something to change that.
This book is very short (less than 200 pages), and so will my review be. There only is one fact that is worth emphasizing about this novel, and this is its strongest point: it is both dark and light at the same time, and leaves you with two opposite feelings. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all? It’s quite hard to explain, but let me clear things up. The main theme of the story is loneliness and oblivion, which aren’t really joyful subjects. But the way the story is written makes it a light and even funny one despite the quite dark and sad subjects it tackles.
And same goes with the main character, Mathea. You also have these opposite feelings towards this old woman. On the one hand, she’s utterly naïve and often gives the impression of a little girl while what you’d expect from a 90-year-old is that she has seen enough in her life to have become wise by now. So the contrast between her age and her behavior makes her quite ridiculous, also her obsession with making sentences that rhyme is, and you like to kindly laugh at her. Yet on the other hand, you can’t help feeling sorry for this poor woman who has absolutely no one, who’s going to die in full ignorance and who is left to call the telephone information service asking for her own number to have some semblance of social life! There was one scene towards the end of the book that made my heart ache for the poor woman: she makes the effort of leaving her home and attends some event at the senior club (which is a real effort for her as she’s very shy and a home body) but there everyone, including the staff, ignore her as if she was a ghost! Although it isn’t told in a sad way, this scene tore my heart apart.
In short, this book was a very nice read. Well, I never felt compelled to read it, I needed something like 4 or 5 days to go through while if it had been amazing I would probably have finished it in a day or two given how thin it is. But overall it was a very nice discovery. I should really try to branch out my reading more often.
I recommend this book to you if: I don’t know… Well I guess that if you’re reading my blog it’s because we less or more have the same reading taste, so I’ll recommend it to those who’d like to read something out of their literary comfort zone.