There is exquisite detail and piercing clarity in these observations from a writer’s notebooks as she faces terminal cancerAnd the Walls Became the World All Around, its title taken from a line in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, is gashed, keening, forensic. It has been finessed from 13 notebooks kept by the Swedish poet and artist Johanna Ekström who, just a week before she died of cancer in spring 2022, asked her friend Sigrid Rausing to transcribe them with a view to publication. Such an unusual – perhaps even onerous – request. Then again, Ekström’s parents were writers and literary grandees; Rausing is the publisher and former editor of Granta: no life without books.And the Walls is less about cancer than it is about winter. Early sections take place during the slowdown and muteness of the pandemic. Ekström’s mother Margareta is mute – unable to speak, or even read or write, after suffering a huge stroke in the mid-1990s. “N”, a translator with w...
This review of Johanna Ekström's posthumously published journal "And the Walls Became the World All Around" focuses on the book's exploration of themes like introspection, mortality, and the weight of silence.
While Ekström's terminal cancer diagnosis serves as a backdrop, the review emphasizes that the book delves deeper into the emotional landscape she navigates in the face of isolation and loss.
The pandemic's stillness, her own mother's prolonged silence after a stroke, and the disappearance of her lover add layers to this powerful reflection on life's fragility and the potency of unspoken thoughts and feelings.
This review of Johanna Ekström's posthumously published journal "And the Walls Became the World All Around" focuses on the book's exploration of themes like introspection, mortality, and the weight of silence. While Ekström's terminal cancer diagnosis serves as a backdrop, the review emphasizes that the book delves deeper into the emotional landscape she navigates in the face of isolation and loss. The pandemic's stillness, her own mother's prolonged silence after a stroke, and the disappearance of her lover add layers to this powerful reflection on life's fragility and the potency of unspoken thoughts and feelings.
