“You’ll always remember me when you think about the old times, won’t you? And I guess everybody thinks about old times, even the happiest people.”

This story captured both the unique, fractured isolation of America and the tenderness of childhood bonds and romance in an incredibly beautiful way. I have a lot more to say, but I want to find the time to say it right.

My expectations were high and luckily met! If you're looking for an introspective story that brings up philosophical questions around freedom and the self in the world, you might like this one.

Enjoyment It was really diffcult for me to put this book down. This partially due to the story itself but also because there only like 4 paragraphs in total, so where to stop?! But what stayed with me the most were the questions of freedom, identity, belonging, and what it means to be human.

Quality The atmosphere Harpman creates is unsettling, haunting, and sometimes a bit surreal. I'm surprised that the almost stream-of-consciousness-like style didn't put me off - this can ruin a story quickly. But in this case, I found it easy to follow our narrator's thoughts and reflections.

Characters Our narrator is different from the other women and this makes her the perfect main character of this book. Her perspective on things is fresh and unbiased, which gives the story an additional interesting layer for interpretations in this thought experiment.

Plot There's a lot of wandering around and though I understand that it's essential for the story and character development, it got a bit monotonous at some points. Apart from that, I loved following our narrator through her life and sharing her insights, discoveries, and decisions.