A review by leifalreadyexists
The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am by Kjersti A. Skomsvold

4.0

This debut novel is enormously moving in an oddly elliptical fashion. A (somewhat) elderly woman takes her life into her hands. There are gorgeous passages here, the results of a vision seemingly deeply estranged from the mundane world of human interaction but desperate for simple recognition. Here's the opening line: it may be 'spoiler' enough; reading it after finishing the book is devastating for both its truth and its cherished self-illusion:

I like it when I can be done with something. Like a knitted earwarmer, like winter, spring, summer, fall. Even like Epsilon's career. I like to get things over with. But impatience has consequences.

If you like your existentialism leavened by humour and a clear-eyed regard for quiet humanity, this is for you.