Stephanie Jane recenzis Escaping The Asylum de Siggy Galaen
An unusual novella
3 steloj
I wasn't initially sure how well I would get on with this unusual Norwegian novella. It's told in the first person by an unnamed narrator and we are thrust straight into their world without being given much in the way of description or background information. Within a few pages though, I found myself intrigued! Our narrator is in some kind of Asylum. It doesn't seem a particularly unpleasant place, but they are unsure of exactly how they came to be there or, indeed, how long they must stay. In trying to figure out for themselves what is going on, they gradually give the reader enough insight to understand too.
Escaping The Asylum is written in a gentle style that, for me, felt just like listening to someone telling me their personal story. I think it is worth mentioning that there are a sprinkling of grammatical errors such as the use …
I wasn't initially sure how well I would get on with this unusual Norwegian novella. It's told in the first person by an unnamed narrator and we are thrust straight into their world without being given much in the way of description or background information. Within a few pages though, I found myself intrigued! Our narrator is in some kind of Asylum. It doesn't seem a particularly unpleasant place, but they are unsure of exactly how they came to be there or, indeed, how long they must stay. In trying to figure out for themselves what is going on, they gradually give the reader enough insight to understand too.
Escaping The Asylum is written in a gentle style that, for me, felt just like listening to someone telling me their personal story. I think it is worth mentioning that there are a sprinkling of grammatical errors such as the use of 'diagnose' for 'diagnosis' in the synopsis. I imagine this is due to the author writing in their second language and I actually found it didn't bother me - a surprise as I'm usually a stickler for proper English! In this case with the direct first person point of view though, the language idiosyncrasies add a layer of depth to the character which compensates for the otherwise deliberate anonymity.
I don't want to say too much about how Escaping The Asylum progresses because I think this is a story that is best appreciated without much in the way of forewarning. Certainly I appreciated it this way. I recommend it as fairly swift read for Black Mirror fans and folks who also enjoyed The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist or I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. A thought-provoking and rewarding story.