A novel that chronicles the struggles of three Ukrainian women and one extremely endangered snail through the travails of capitalism, foreign invasion, romance, and survival.
Remarkable ... In another author’s hands, these departures might be experienced as digressions, draining suspense and power from the story, but Reva they alchemizes them into something between imagination and reality, an original way to investigate the artifice of the novel — its limitations but also its expansiveness ... Original ... Reva places her metaphorical arms around all of it — with the intention of using language to express the inexpressible: senseless violence, loneliness, extreme suffering and grief ... Wildly inventive.
Startling ... Isn’t an easy read, but it is brilliant and heart-stopping. Authorial interludes can feel like interruptions, but by breaking the fourth wall, Reva forces us to pay attention to the ongoing devastation behind the narrative while unpacking the compromises of storytelling.
The characters call upon a specific breed of literary fiction: with motivations and backstories explicitly spelled out, with occupations just eccentric enough to spike interest. The beginning had me ready to endure a novel of painfully eccentric characters, which is why the metafictional turn in the second part is so exhilarating ... The fourth wall break is sobering, funny and gripping ... When we return to the characters, it’s with renewed force, desperation and urgency ... Nimbly balances its wider scope with its smallest, shell-bound characters.
