MixedBookforumIn a complex cycle of moral accounting, the novel occasionally tips into overcompensation. The vacuity and dystopian flatness of the cultural-corporate nexus Oval depicts come across as easy and often trivial targets for a writer as talented as Wilk. The satire can turn sour, overly literal ... a high-minded, intelligent novel with slight performance anxiety over its hypertopical subjects. Sometimes that means remarkable precision in merging plot with ethical treatise; in other places, Anja’s internal monologue echoes Carrie Bradshaw’s \'I couldn’t help but wonder\' refrain ... Though the final pages hint at regeneration, the novel’s ultimate fantasy is not redemption but relief—from guilt and moral burden. With this, far more than its subject matter, Oval strikes a note that will vibrate with Wilk’s contemporaries.
Sue Prideaux
RaveBookforum\"... ambitious and stylistically accomplished ... While there are better primers on Nietzsche’s philosophy out there... Prideaux’s book is the most seamless in its treatment of the material. Her sensory awareness reflects Nietzsche’s own development as an intensely subjective philosopher ... While [the book\'s] ending feels like a capitulation of sorts, Prideaux’s stylistic virtuosity and narrative talent has carved a much wider entry point to Nietzsche’s life and thought, setting a new standard for the genre.\
