On the Calculation of Volume
, pages
This novel painstakingly tells the story of a woman trying to navigate a world in which she experiences the same day repeatedly, Groundhog Day-style. I say painstakingly because the book is highly repetitive, as you might imagine. Not only the repeating events of the day, but the repeating train of thought of the protagonist. I get that’s part of the meta nature of the book. The reader is experiencing the repetitiveness and feeling of entrapment alongside the main character, but it got annoying. Just when things started to “happen” the story would mostly go nowhere. It did provide a platform for questioning life’s meaning, what has value, how to think about time and physical space, etc. The deep inquiries were not enough to save this one for me. Supposedly there are 6 or so more volumes in the series. I’ll assume I’ve already read them.

