Ice: Anna Kavan (Penguin Science Fiction) Paperback – June 3, 2021

This book was originally classified as science fiction, but it hardly seems so today when rapid ecological decline is a fact, and democratic institutions have turned sinister and controlling. The novel is complex and open to interpretation. I find it to be almost unbearably brutal with themes of male dominance expressed in the need to control and destroy. The brutality is slightly tempered by symbolic passages that are often of great beauty. Anna Kavan is a master of English prose and this book requires close reading. She was a great favorite of Doris Lessing who championed her work and argued that Kavan was a writer of importance and had much to offer contemporary readers. She deserves more readers. You should be one of them.

This is a dark tale of obsession told against the backdrop of war and the apocalyptic encroachment of snow and ice. We are not directly told the cause of these disasters, and it doesn't matter. Rather, the story is told through the determined, and sometimes hallucinatory eyes of a man on a fevered and quasi-erotic mission to possess the recalcitrant young woman of his obsession. It is here, amid a teetering psychology which mirrors that of the collapsing world order, that the meaningful action of this short novel takes place.Throughout Kavan masterfully conveys a feeling of dread and naked will amidst absurdity. This is not feel good story, yet the writing is intriguing enough to keep the reader engaged. It transcends categorisation. It is worth your time but, if you're like me, you'll be glad when it's over.

“Something in her demanded victimization and terror, so she corrupted my dreams, led me into dark places I had no wish to explore. It was no longer clear to me which of us was the victim. Perhaps we were victims of one another.” - Ice.An unnamed narrator and a man only known as the warden search for an elusive girl in a frozen, seemingly post-nuclear, apocalyptic landscape. The country has been invaded and is being governed by a secret organization. There is destruction everywhere; great walls of ice overrun the world. Together with the narrator, the reader is swept into a hallucinatory quest for this strange and fragile creature with albino hair.This was my classic pick for the month of August. In all honesty, I don’t remember where or how I found out about this book, but I am glad I did. In this story, we follow an unnamed narrator as he tries to track down and save this girl. He follows her throughout this snowy, apocalyptic, and war-torn world to try to free her from the warden while also trying to run from the ice that is taking over the Earth. Overall, this book was so strange. I think “hallucinatory” is a good way to describe it because the narrator is extremely unreliable, and sometimes it is hard to tell what is real or imagined. The writing and landscape in this novel are bleak, cold, and fairly to the point, although, the plot itself is quite sprawling. What I find more interesting is the author, Anna Kavan, and how her struggles in life (strained parental relationships, bad marriages, mental health, and heroin abuse) show up and inform her writing. I am definitely interested in reading more of her novels and short stories since I have heard many praises about them.

Ice was recommended to me by a friend who understands my taste in fiction. It was a cold read; literally cold at times. The writing was bleak and oddly heartfelt. The grim inevitability of the looming apocalypse tinged then narrative with a grim nihilism. If you dig Thomas Ligotti, Robert Chambers or the like, check this one out. I look forward to exploring more of her work.

I started reading this quite a while ago and ended up putting it aside because I couldn't "gel" with it. I came back to it two days ago and ended up "falling" into this haunting, desolate and surreal story. The picture of a bleak and fragmented apocalyptic world is vivid and uncompromising, but it is the relationship between the unstable narrator, the sinister "warden and the waif like and ethereal "girl" which is fascinating and compelling reading ..........and then there is the ice.The novel itself is written with a sense of urgency, pervading doom. I can't give this novel any higher accolades, except to say that 5 stars doesn't seem enough. A story that will haunt your peace of mind.

Detailed, The Warden is a layered villain. The narrator at first seems not much different from his rival at times. The girl is fragile and a tsundere with an abusive backstory.Ending is abrupt, had imagined the ending being more fantastic. The post ending details which parts of The narrator’s tellings we should hold in skepticism. The character’s are layered and the ELE Ice closing in make the novel more exciting.

A year ago I would have enjoyed this story but not totally believed or recognized its relevance. In today’s ecologically myopic, COVid-riddled world I can see how a civilization can come to this. The book may have been written to tell the story of a man’s obsession, but the world created to house his obsession is strangely right on target with the direction our society seems to be heading. I’m hoping a lesson can be learned.