Mary Ventura och det nionde kungariket
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath skrev Mary Ventura och det nionde kungariket 1952 när hon var 20 år gammal men novellen - som nu har en unik plats i hennes samlade verk - publicerades postumt först 2019. Det är en symbolisk, allegorisk berättelse om en ung kvinnas tågresa till »det nionde kungariket«. En historia om en kvinnas uppror mot konventionerna och hur hon börjar ta kontroll över sitt eget liv. På resan gör Mary Ventura en rad observationer med hallucinatorisk intensitet: läppar röda som blod, en sol mer orange än något hon tidigare sett, tåghjulen som låter som »skam, skam, skam«. »Men vad är det nionde kungariket?« frågar hon en dam i samma vagn som hon själv. »Det är den frusna viljans kungarike«, kommer svaret. »Det finns ingen återvändo.« Mary Ventura och det nionde kungariket ges nu ut för första gången på svenska, i översättning av Maria Nääs.
Publication Year: 2019
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Beautiful and moving short novel about Mary Ventura who boards a train to the Ninth Kingdom because her parents thinks she should. She is very complacent until she watches another woman being forced off of the train, crying that it is not her time. Mary realises that this is not where she wants to be, she does not wish to go to the Ninth Kingdom, but she also does not know how to get off of the train.
A story that could be an allegory for so much. Life and death is the most obvious one. Plath herself struggled with depression, maybe it is about waking up and becoming alive again.
The story starts with her parents making a choice for her, and she agrees without really understanding what it would mean for her future.
There is a woman who seems to know Mary, but Mary does not understand who it is. The reader never learns who this mystery woman is, but she is important to Mary. Maybe it is her own self, redirecting her own life as it should have happened. The conductor says she has ridden the train several times, while it seems to be a journey that everyone only takes once.
It is a short but very interesting story.
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