Meetup One Hundred and Thirty Eight: Ice

Hey team - Before you even start thinking it, no, not that one. This time it's the 1967 hallucinogenic, sci-fi short novel by British writer Anna Kavan. Although labeled sci-fi, the novel itself is considered genre defying and is slipstream fiction with heavy surrealism and experimentation. The novel is set in a future apocalyptic Earth that has become fully engulfed in ice due to a nuclear event. The plot, as much as there is one, is narrated by our male protagonist who obsessively pursues a woman across the frozen expanse. His increasingly unhinged and dream-like pursuit is only matched by the heightened brutality of the frozen planet around him. A forewarning, the novel is born out of 1960s experimental fiction and thus will probably be confusing if you're expecting some linear narrative. My advice is to just let the writing carry you along for the trip (pun intended). Enjoy!

Mercifully it's fairly short at less than 200 pages for most editions.