A review by svetlanasterlin
Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom
3.0
"I knew everything about life when I was five, and I spent the next forty years trying to understand it."
2.5 stars
I saw the film adaptation earlier this year and fell in love with the characters and the nostalgic approach to the Soviet setting. I was really looking forward to reading the novel, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. To be fair, the film is only a loose adaptation (I believe the changes were made for the better), and the book's English translation may not always be accurate.
I couldn't help but feel like the whole book was basically one long description. To this end, some descriptions are lovely and unique, but others simply don't make sense (I read a review that questioned if the author is colourblind, lol). Even though it's a short book, it feels overly repetitive because of the recycled descriptions of clouds, stars, and smells (which could be intentional to place the reader in the characters' experiences in the long train ride). Similarly, the dialogue gets tedious and doesn't do anything to help the reader warm up to the characters. The girl almost never speaks, and when she does, it's through indirect speech and not actual dialogue. We learn a lot more about the man than we do the girl, thanks to his many lewd recollections, but for some reason, he's rarely referred to by name. The girl, on the other hand, remains an enigma right up until the end. In fact, the last sentence or two wrap up her arc in a way that feels unearned and rushed, even after her long journey (both literal and metaphorical) on the train. I think - for me, at least - it's because we don't get enough insight into her internal life/thoughts.
Again, a lot of these drawbacks could be attributed to the translation. As someone of Russian background, I understood many of the humorous cultural references and the words that were left untranslated, but I wonder how non-Russian people interpret these sections. Overall, I thought Compartment No. 6 was incredibly accurate in its descriptions of Soviet Russia, the country's natural landscapes, and all of its contradictions.
2.5 stars
I saw the film adaptation earlier this year and fell in love with the characters and the nostalgic approach to the Soviet setting. I was really looking forward to reading the novel, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. To be fair, the film is only a loose adaptation (I believe the changes were made for the better), and the book's English translation may not always be accurate.
I couldn't help but feel like the whole book was basically one long description. To this end, some descriptions are lovely and unique, but others simply don't make sense (I read a review that questioned if the author is colourblind, lol). Even though it's a short book, it feels overly repetitive because of the recycled descriptions of clouds, stars, and smells (which could be intentional to place the reader in the characters' experiences in the long train ride). Similarly, the dialogue gets tedious and doesn't do anything to help the reader warm up to the characters. The girl almost never speaks, and when she does, it's through indirect speech and not actual dialogue. We learn a lot more about the man than we do the girl, thanks to his many lewd recollections, but for some reason, he's rarely referred to by name. The girl, on the other hand, remains an enigma right up until the end. In fact, the last sentence or two wrap up her arc in a way that feels unearned and rushed, even after her long journey (both literal and metaphorical) on the train. I think - for me, at least - it's because we don't get enough insight into her internal life/thoughts.
Again, a lot of these drawbacks could be attributed to the translation. As someone of Russian background, I understood many of the humorous cultural references and the words that were left untranslated, but I wonder how non-Russian people interpret these sections. Overall, I thought Compartment No. 6 was incredibly accurate in its descriptions of Soviet Russia, the country's natural landscapes, and all of its contradictions.