The Wall Review

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

One day a woman wakes up to find an invisible wall has cut her off from the rest of the world and everyone and everything on the other side is dead.  Now she has to find a way to go on with just a few animals the only other living things left.

In the beginning this book is interesting.  One woman, whose name you never learn, is cut off from the world by an invisible wall.  She is the only one left.  Just her and a couple of animals.  Everything and everyone outside the wall is dead and lost to her.  The concept caught my attention.  And the book did get me thinking about what I would do if I found myself in her situation.  I don't know how I would handle being all alone in the world.  Would I get up every morning?  Would I continue with the work that needed to be done?  Would I keep going, taking care of the animals and the crops?  Or would I give up?  Would I go insane?  I don't know.  But watching our narrator go through it makes me wonder.  And it is interesting to watch how she handles her new life: what becomes important to her, what she misses most, what she thinks about when she isn't busy, what she finds to fill her days.  Unfortunately my interest waned long before the book was over.  There is only so long I can watch someone pick berries and plant beans and milk cows before I don't care anymore.  The monotony of her life is part of the story I guess but reading about monotony isn't fun.  I was waiting for something to happen but after the wall appears the whole book is her going on and on about hay and potatoes.