Jan Priddy’s Reviews > The Wall > Status Update
Jan Priddy
is on page 200 of 239
Issues for me concerning this novel. The translation isn't great—"stove door" is an inglenook, "diary" is sometimes a diary but otherwise something that includes fairytales, and "stroking" never becomes petting the dog. The MC is philosophic but ignorant of nutrition and over concerned for the wrong things—why so worried about meat but not about salt? And because I researched for a novel about women left alone...
— 4 hours, 2 min ago
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Jan Priddy
is on page 204 of 239
James Wood, The New Yorker "In “The Wall,” Haushofer’s narrator, alone with her animals, establishes a kind of separatist commune deep in the woods, creating a new life so fulfilling and engrossing that it is not clear she would wish to rejoin the old, ordinary, damaged society, even if she could..." But no, I disagree. The MC is not fulfilled. She reaches a point of patient acceptance, more Zen, and often lost.
— 2 hours, 15 min ago
Jan Priddy
is on page 204 of 239
translation: "Toward morning the moments of daylight increased..." wtf
— 3 hours, 49 min ago
Jan Priddy
is on page 203 of 239
Foolish to think raspberries were only sugar; foolish to go on and on about scything hay, but not a word about bundling it up for drying and carrying and storage. Apparently most of her hay dries in one day? Unlikely. She burns cordwood the same season she cuts it and without ever mentioning splitting the logs? And aspirin is toxic to cats.
— 3 hours, 52 min ago
Jan Priddy
is on page 200 of 239
The MC consistently ascribes thoughts and motivations to animals, which are ridiculous sometimes. Sentimental and silly. Though it's believable that she would do this, I find it annoying.
— 3 hours, 59 min ago
Jan Priddy
is on page 143 of 239
I am struggling with this. It's a combination of bad translation and my own research while writing a novel where most all animals in the world have died, leaving only insects, arachnids, & eleven women (actually 12 women, but only 11 speak). She never makes cheese or yogurt or any sort of fermented food? She salts meat but doesn't worry about running out of salt? The work of dressing a deer or gathering cut hay?
— Feb 20, 2026 07:07AM
Jan Priddy
is on page 63 of 239
spruce "tips" not "tops" are edible—the new growth.
— Feb 18, 2026 06:19PM
