On the surface, this translated, dystopian work from 1963 doesn’t seem like it should be as engaging as it is. It’s slow-paced, introspective, and all about a woman milking a cow, scything hay, chopping wood, describing the weather, and spending time with animals. Nothing really happens. But I was so interested.
The book does start with a big event, though. Our nameless narrator wakes up to find that her traveling companions who had gone out the previous night had never returned. When she heads to the village to investigate, she hits a wall. Literally bumps right into it. She realizes there is a wall all around the valley she is in and that everyone outside of the wall is probably dead. The rest of the book is about her survival over the course of a couple of years, alone except for a dog, cat, and cow.
In spite of my flippant claim that nothing happens, there is more to the book than just the daily activities of survival. The narrator reflects on what it means to be a woman, what it means to be human, and what it means to be the last human. There were some quotes I appreciated around these introspections:
- “. . . I thought about my former life and found it unsatisfactory in all respects. I had achieved little that I had wanted, and everything I had achieved I had ceased to want. That’s probably how it was for everybody else, too.”
- “The only creature in the forest that can really do right or wrong is me. And I alone can show mercy.”
- “But if time exists only in my head, and I’m the last human being, it will end with my death. The thought cheers me. I may be in a position to murder time.”
While my interest did start to wane a bit towards the end, it was overall a really enjoyable book, though I still can’t tell you quite why. I think the focus on animals might have played a large role in that. We learn pretty early on that we aren’t going to get answers about the wall, and I found myself satisfied regardless, perhaps because I had time to adjust to that idea as I became immersed into the narrator’s life. If you like slow-paced, introspective books, post-apocalyptic novels, or if you prefer animals to people, this is worth checking out.
