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Welcome to the Readalong March 2024.
A few of us are reading Olga Ravn's My Work this month. Feel free to join the read along or to comment about your experience with the author's any other work.

My Work ByOlga Ravn

Olga Sofia Ravn (born 27 September 1986) is a Danish poet and novelist. Her works have received international critical acclaim. Ravn is very well honoured as a poet.

In 2019, Ravn was awarded the Beatrice Prize.
Her novel, The Employees, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.

My Work is longlisted for Repulic of Consciousness Prize Uk Ireland longlist 2024.

I am picking up my copy tomorrow and will be ready to start whenever is convenient for you all...

Leslie wrote: "I am picking up my copy tomorrow and will be ready to start whenever is convenient for you all..."

My copy is arriving on Thursday

So should we plan on starting this weekend?

Leslie wrote: "So should we plan on starting this weekend?"

That works for me. Is that good for you too Nidhi?

Sure, Greg and Leslie. I am excited for this read, thanks for the company.

Because of an unexpected arrangement, I will be travelling from 24 March to 27 April, so I have to finish this book before I leave. I intend to keep notes and join the discussion whenever possible.

Nidhi wrote: "Because of an unexpected arrangement, I will be travelling from 24 March to 27 April, so I have to finish this book before I leave. I intend to keep notes and join the discussion whenever possible."

OK. You can also make comments as you read, hidden under spoiler tags. If you label them with approximate location in the book, Greg and I can then react to them as we reach that point.

Nidhi wrote: "Because of an unexpected arrangement, I will be travelling from 24 March to 27 April, so I have to finish this book before I leave. I intend to keep notes and join the discussion whenever possible."

Yes, no worries Nidhi! I hope you have good travels, and come and comment whenever you can. If anyone gets ahead, they can use spoiler tags for spoilers.

I finished section one The Beginning. It is an easy read if readers do not reflect too much on the subject, which I guess is not possible women readers who are mothers.

The book gives a sincere account of the ordeal of child birth, breast feeding and child rearing, every woman has different experience and she is not supposed to be expressing the ordeal in so many words. Silence is expected of them and they must love the new born baby from the first moment, feeling of detachment from the baby is never considered as a major issue.

I think Anna is suffering from some serious problem, which I hope will be diagnosed later in the book.

I am confused about the narrator, sometimes it is in third person like someone else is reading the manuscript and sometimes it feels we are reading the personal account.

Nidhi wrote: "I finished section one The Beginning. It is an easy read if readers do not reflect too much on the subject, which I guess is not possible women readers who are mothers.

The book gives a sincere ac..."

Definitely Nidhi!

I think the third person is the narrator's way of trying to feel less vulnerable in revealing something so deeply personal. That's why she says "I don't way anyone but me to read Anna's texts. I don't want anyone but me to know her." Anna feels psychologically naked in telling this particular story, and this the narrator's mental trick to create a little distance in the telling by referring to herself in the third person.

As far as why the author uses this technique, I guess it's Ravn's way of expressing how deeply vulnerable this whole story is to tell. Society can judge mothers so harshly, and as you say, there are so many expectations put upon them and people have such strong ideas of what new mothers should be feeling.

****Spoilers Ahead..... I am using app so can't tag the comment.*

Greg, do you think the two narrators are same person in different timeline, the third person is Anna who is being retrospective and planning second child and the first person is the Anna who wrote the manuscript during first pregnancy?

Anyways the technique is good enough to convey its message. The best a book can do is to communicate well with readers.

Nidhi wrote: "****Spoilers Ahead..... I am using app so can't tag the comment.*

Greg, do you think the two narrators are same person in different timeline, the third person is Anna who is being r..."

I'm not sure yet Nidhi, but I'll comment more on that as I get further. I like your idea though; it definitely sounds possible.

Yes, we need time, of course it will become clear as we proceed further, moreover the confusion is intentional on part of the author.

I like a lot of the poetry embedded in the Sixth Beginning section. A lot of it seems to be centered around (view spoiler)[the fear of losing her own identity, and there's some beautiful and cryptic imagery throughout where she describes being connected to something primeval:

". . . it's the same darkness
that makes rock move
across the forest floor
over thousands of years"

and then in another poem in the cycle, the questions what a poem can do within a "precivilized darkness."

Maybe she fears that so much of her life is being spent on caring for the baby that she's being dragged back in time? But there seems something almost mystical too.

It reminds of some weird parts of The Call of the Wild where the protagonist hallucinates cavemen, as though that way of living were connecting him with something so central and primitive that it's mystic. And here, Ravn feels that breastfeeding is like that I think; it's calling her back to primal ways of being. (hide spoiler)]

This is a strange book, but I'm enjoying it.

I found the poetry compelling, at front its describing the general happenings.. then suddenly becomes introspective dwelling in psychology just in two lines.

I am a bit further than you Greg. An interesting phrase has come up .....My Work... Women's Wageless Work. Spoilers or no spoilers I couldn't stop myself mentioning it.

I am near to the end of the second section The Continuation.

This book can be taken as a psychological novel, hence there is confusion in timelines and narrator. It is a unique book that covers the psychology of a young mother, her question to the world and to almighty 'why' women have to suffer and pretend the opposite to the world.
(view spoiler)[Anna entered into depression with the conception of the child and for some reason depression continues... the book describes many issues and their on going treatments.
With all this , the book is mainly focused on women and their role as a mother, Anna is torn between the desire to adopt the traditional role of a mother but her Mind , Body and Emotions are not cooperating... their is struggle. (hide spoiler)]

Book has such depth that it can't (shouldn't) be read in a hurry. I am impressed by the author and look forward to her other works , her poetry.

Nidhi wrote: "I am near to the end of the second section The Continuation.

This book can be taken as a psychological novel, hence there is confusion in timelines and narrator. It is a unique book that covers th..."

I agree with all of this Nidhi. I had a work trip in Taiwan the past couple weeks so my reading has slowed down, but I hope to catch up a bit on the plane ride back.

It definitely feels like postpartum depression to me, but this book also challenges all the assumptions and pressures we put upon new mothers as a society. As you say, the timelimes are deliberately jumbled and we experience some of her disorientation. Some parts are tough to read, such as (view spoiler)[the parts where she practices or pretends to cut herself with a knife and where she longs for the release of death (hide spoiler)], but I think Ravn captures the raw desperation and disorientation of Anna's experience beautifully.

The part with knives brought The Bell Jar to my mind.

I finished this book and i liked it very much, I had to take a break because the theme and its treatment is very serious and demanded attention.

At the end of the second part author takes on the theme of maternity with the help of few literary pieces of which i have read two... The Yellow Wallpaper (40 page story, highly recommended for readers of this book) and Frankenstein: The 1818 Text. These works have been dissected by the author with such frightening sincerity that they are unforgettable.

This is a monumental work written almost as non-fiction, presenting author's POV through works by women from the past ages.
It is the most difficult book i have read this year and after The The Books of Jacob. I am glad that i read it .