My Work by Olga Ravi. Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell

I have never given birth to a child. But I have birthed a creative manuscript into the world. Before reading My Work by Danish author Ogla Ravn (translated by Jennifer Russel and Sophia Hersi Smith for BookHug Press) I never would have dared to equate the two. But Ravn’s experimental novel gives me pause. A structural mash-up of auto-fiction, poetry, and a series of journal entries, this novel takes the reader through the tumultuousness that is being pregnant, giving birth, becoming a parent, all while maintaining a sense of one’s creative self.

Anna is a young woman struggling with post-partum after the birth of her son. She and her partner struggle to understand their new roles in relation to their child and to each other. Their distress, mostly Anna’s, jumps off the page thanks in large part to the tension that underrides the novel’s structure. Prose flips into poetry and back again. Tenses are malleable and fluid and yet never confused. Then comes the journal entries in which the author—bearing a striking resemblance to Anna, at least in tone—addresses the protagonist directly. The structure also conveys, with great efficacy, the anguish that follows Anna’s various levels of mental wellness and disassociation. Throughout the novel Anna questions her identity, her own memory, her perceptions, her sanity. At times, this is overwhelming, frustrating, infuriating, but it’s also always grossly authentic. Throughout it all, the author digs and digs for an answer to how one lives as both a parent and artist. Anna carves out snippets of time to write, fighting against the pressure of the ticking clock, haunted by the inevitable which will force her to abandon her craft to resume motherhood once again.  

I’m not accustomed to reading experimental novels; I find them dissonant and, as a result, often experience resistance in terms of entering the fictive dream. In turn, I usually leave these novels largely unfinished. Not so with this book. I found My Work to be completely engaging. This novel is sharp, funny, absorbing, and oddly relatable—even for those who have never given birth—at least not to a child. I recommend it for its refreshing tone, its commitment to truth-telling, and for its ambitious scope. Well-worth the read.

Thank you to BookHug Press for sending me a copy of the book to review.

My Work by Olga Ravn Translated by Jennifer Russell and Sophia Hersi Smith BookHug Press, 2023, pg. 375 ISBN: 9781771668644