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(Art by Anna Kavan)*

This is on my short list for all-time favorite novel, and yet I can't properly explain why that is. It doesn't exactly feature a thrilling plot or even relatable characters, but the overall feel of the book is so uniquely strange and disorienting that I'm entirely absorbed anyway, similar to (as others have mentioned) watching a David Lynch film. I find myself revisiting certain sections pretty often, just to envelop myself in the cold, hallucinatory world of the narrator, who shifts in an out of dreams and visions during his journey across a frozen post-apocalyptic world to find the elusive "ice maiden" that he loves, and who he believes needs saving.

The first time I read this I treated it too much like a puzzle to be solved, which was a mistake, as it only causes needless frustration. Better to just go with it and let the otherworldly nightmare imagery wash over you, even if it can be relentlessly grim and depressing at times. Now that I've done that I can try to piece it all together, but there are so many possible interpretations that it's likely impossible. And that's fine by me.

One can only wonder where Anna Kavan could have gone from here had she lived longer. Brian Aldiss notes in his intro that she was slowly becoming more open to Ice being considered a science fiction novel by the SF community, and it would have been intriguing to see how her writing would have evolved had she been able to continue in this vein.

Not for everybody, but for me it gets all the stars.

*Image of painting is from 2019 3AM Magazine article on Kavan.